The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates April 8, 1805 - April 12, 1805
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: April 8, 1805 - April 12, 1805
April 8, 1805
Monday, 8th. The day was clear and cool, the wind from the
northwest, so that we traveled slowly. After breakfasting
at the second Mandan village we passed the Mahaha at the
mouth of Knife river, a handsome stream about eighty yards
wide. Beyond this we reached the island which captain Clarke
had visited on the 30th October. This island has timber
as well as the lowlands on the north, but its distance from
the water had prevented our encamping there during the winter.
From the head of this island we made three and a half miles
to a point of wood on the north, passing a high bluff on
the south, and having come about fourteen miles. In the
course of the day one of our boats filled and was near sinking;
we however saved her with the loss of a little biscuit and
powder.
April 9, 1805
Tuesday, April 9. We set off as soon as it was light,
and proceeded five miles to breakfast, passing a low ground
on the south, covered with groves of cottonwood timber.
At the distance of six miles, we reached on the north a
hunting camp of Minnetarees consisting of thirty lodges,
and built in the usual form of earth and timber. Two miles
and a quarter farther, comes in on the same side Miry creek,
a small stream about ten yards wide, which, rising in some
lakes near the Mouse river, passes through beautiful level
fertile plains without timber in a direction nearly southwest;
the banks near its entrance being steep, and rugged on both
sides of the Missouri. Three miles above this creek we came
to a hunting party of Minnetarees, who had prepared a park
or inclosure and were waiting the return of the antelope:
this animal, which in the autumn retires for food and shelter
to the Black mountains during the winter, recross the river
at this season of the year, and spread themselves through
the plains on the north of the Missouri.
We
halted and smoked a short time with them, and then proceeded
on through handsome plains on each side of the river, and
encamped at the distance of twenty-three and a half miles
on the north side: the day was clear and pleasant, the wind
high from the south, but afterwards changed to a western
steady breeze. The bluffs which we passed to-day are upwards
of one hundred feet high, composed of a mixture of yellow
clay and sand, with many horizontal strata of carbonated
wood resembling pit-coal, from one to five feet in depth,
and scattered through the bluff at different elevations,
some as high as eighty feet above the water: the hills along
the river are broken, and present every appearance of having
been burned at some former period; great quantities of pumice
stone and lava or rather earth, which seems to have been
boiled and then hardened by exposure, being seen in many
parts of these hills where they are broken and washed down
into gullies by the rain and melting snow.
A
great number of brants pass up the river: there are some
of them perfectly white, except the large feathers of the
first and second joint of the wing which are black, though
in every other characteristic they resemble common gray
brant: we also saw but could not procure an animal that
burrows in the ground, and similar in every respect to the
burrowing squirrel, except that it is only one third of
its size. This may be the animal whose works we have often
seen in the plains and prairies; they resemble the labors
of the salamander in the sand hills of South Carolina and
Georgia, and like him, the animals rarely come above ground;
they consist of a little hillock of ten or twelve pounds
of loose ground which would seem to have been reversed from
a pot, though no aperture is seen through which it could
have been thrown: on removing gently the earth, you discover
that the soil has been broken in a circle of about an inch
and a half diameter, where the ground is looser though still
no opening is perceptible.
When
we stopped for dinner the squaw went out, and after penetrating
with a sharp stick the holes of the mice, near some drift
wood, brought to us a quantity of wild artichokes, which
the mice collect and hoard in large numbers; the root is
white, of an ovate form, from one to three inches long,
and generally of the size of a man's finger, and two, four,
and sometimes six roots are attached to a single stalk.
Its flavor as well as the stalk which issues from it resemble
those of the Jerusalem artichoke, except that the latter
is much larger. A large beaver was caught in a trap last
night, and the mosquitoes begin to trouble us.
April 10, 1805
Wednesday 10. We again set off early with clear pleasant
weather, and halted about ten for breakfast, above a sandbank
which was falling in, and near a small willow island. On
both sides of the Missouri, after ascending the hills near
the water, one fertile unbroken plain extends itself as
far as the eye can reach, without a solitary tree or shrub,
except in moist situations or in the steep declivities of
hills where they are sheltered from the ravages of fire.
At the distance of twelve miles we reached the lower point
of a bluff on the south; which is in some parts on fire
and throws out quantities of smoke which has a strong sulphurous
smell, the coal and other appearances in the bluffs being
like those described yesterday: at one o'clock we overtook
three Frenchmen who left the fort a few days before us,
in order to make the first attempt on this river of hunting
beaver, which they do by means of traps: their efforts promise
to be successful for they have already caught twelve which
are finer than any we have ever seen: they mean to accompany
us as far as the Yellowstone river in order to obtain our
protection against the Assiniboines who might attack them.
In the evening we encamped on a willow point to the south
opposite to a bluff, above which a small creek falls in,
and just above a remarkable bend in the river to the southwest,
which we called the Little Basin.
The
low grounds which we passed to-day possess more timber than
is usual, and are wider: the current is moderate, at least
not greater than that of the Ohio in high tides; the banks
too fall in but little; so that the navigation comparatively
with that lower down the Missouri is safe and easy. We were
enabled to make eighteen and a half miles: we saw the track
of a large white bear, there were also a herd of antelopes
in the plains; the geese and swan are now feeding in considerable
quantities on the young grass in the low prairies; we shot
a prairie hen, and a bald eagle of which there were many
nests in the tall cottonwood trees; but could procure neither
of two elk which were in the plain. Our old companions the
mosquitoes have renewed their visit, and gave us much uneasiness.
April 11, 1805
Thursday, 11th. We set out at daylight, and after
passing bare and barren hills on the south, and a plain
covered with timber on the north, breakfasted at five miles
distance: here we were regaled with a deer brought in by
the hunters, which was very acceptable as we had been for
several days without fresh meat; the country between this
and fort Mandan being so frequently disturbed by hunters
that the game has become scarce. We then proceeded with
a gentle breeze from the south which carried the pirogues
on very well; the day was however so warm that several of
the men worked with no clothes except round the waist, which
is the less inconvenient as we are obliged to wade in some
places owing to the shallowness of the river. At seven miles
we reached a large sandbar making out from the north. We
again stopped for dinner, after which we went on to a small
plain on the north covered with cottonwood where we encamped,
having made nineteen miles. The country around is much the
same as that we passed yesterday: on the sides of the hills,
and even on the banks of the rivers, as well as on the sandbars,
is a white substance which appears in considerable quantities
on the surface of the earth, and tastes like a mixture of
common salt with glauber salts: many of the streams which
come from the foot of the hills, are so strongly impregnated
with this substance, that the water has an unpleasant taste
and a purgative effect. A beaver was caught last night by
one of the Frenchmen; we killed two geese, and saw some
cranes, the largest bird of that kind common to the Missouri
and Mississippi, and perfectly white except the large feathers
on the two first joints of the wing which are black. Under
a bluff opposite to our encampment we discovered some Indians
with horses, whom we supposed were Minnetarees, but the
width of the river prevented our speaking to them.
April 12, 1805
Friday, 12th. We set off early and passed a high
range of hills on the south side, our pirogues being obliged
to go over to the south in order to avoid a sandbank which
was rapidly falling in. At six miles we came to at the lower
side of the entrance of the Little Missouri, where we remained
during the day for the purpose of making celestial observations.
This river empties itself on the south side of the Missouri,
one thousand six hundred and ninety-three miles from its
confluence with the Mississippi. It rises to the west of
the Black mountains, across the northern extremity of which
it finds a narrow rapid passage along high perpendicular
banks, then seeks the Missouri in a northeastern direction,
through a broken country with highlands bare of timber,
and the low grounds particularly supplied with cottonwood,
elm, small ash, box, alder, and an undergrowth of willow,
redwood, sometimes called red or swamp-willow, the redberry
and chokecherry. In its course it passes near the northwest
side of the Turtle mountain, which is said to be only twelve
or fifteen miles from its mouth in a straight line a little
to the south of west, so that both the Little Missouri and
Knife river have been laid down too far southwest. It enters
the Missouri with a bold current, and is one hundred and
thirty-four yards wide, but its greatest depth is two feet
and a half, and this joined to its rapidity and its sandbars,
make the navigation difficult except for canoes, which may
ascend it for a considerable distance.
At
the mouth, and as far as we could discern from the hills
between the two rivers about three miles from their junction,
the country is much broken, the soil consisting of a deep
rich dark colored loam, intermixed with a small proportion
of fine sand and covered generally with a short grass resembling
blue grass. In its color, the nature of its bed, and its
general appearance, it resembles so much the Missouri as
to induce a belief that the countries they water are similar
in point of soil. From the Mandan villages to this place
the country is hilly and irregular, with the same appearance
of glauber salts and carbonated wood, the low grounds smooth,
sandy, and partially covered with cottonwood and small ash;
at some distance back there are extensive plains of a good
soil, but without timber or water.
We found great quantities of small onions which grow single,
the bulb of an oval form, white, about the size of a bullet
with a leaf resembling that of the chive. On the side of
a neighboring hill, there is a species of dwarf cedar: it
spreads its limbs along the surface of the earth, which
it almost conceals by its closeness and thickness, and is
sometimes covered by it, having always a number of roots
on the under side, while on the upper are a quantity of
shoots which with their leaves seldom rise higher than six
or eight inches; it is an evergreen, its leaf more delicate
than that of the common cedar, though the taste and smell
is the same.
The country around has been so recently hunted that the
game are extremely shy, so that a white rabbit, two beaver,
a deer, and a bald eagle were all that we could procure.
The weather had been clear, warm, and pleasant in the morning,
but about three we had a squall of high wind and rain with
some thunder, which lasted till after sunset when it again
cleared off.
Next Journal
Entry
|