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The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates September 4, 1804 - September
14, 1804
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: September 4, 1804 - September 14, 1804
September 4, 1804
September 4. We set out early, with a very cold wind from
S.S.E. and at one mile and a half, reached a small creek,
called Whitelime creek, on the south side. Just above this
is a cliff, covered with cedar trees, and at three miles
a creek, called Whitepaint creek, of about thirty yards
wide: on the same side, and at four and a half miles distance
from the Whitepaint creek, is the Rapid river, or, as it
is called by the French, la Riverequi Court; this river
empties into the Missouri, in a course S.W. by W. and is
one hundred and fifty-two yards wide, and four feet deep
at the confluence. It rises in the Black mountains, and
passes through a hilly country, with a poor soil. Captain
Clark ascended three miles to a beautiful plain, on the
upper side, where the Pawnees once had a village: he found
that the river widened above its mouth, and much divided
by sands and islands, which, joined to the great rapidity
of the current, makes the navigation very difficult, even
for small boats. Like the Platte its waters are of a light
color; like that river too it throws out into the Missouri,
great quantities of sand, coarser even than that of the
Platte, which form sandbars and shoals near its mouth.
We encamped just above it, on the south, having made only
eight miles, as the wind shifted to the south, and blew
so hard that in the course of the day we broke our mast:
we saw some deer, a number of geese, and shot a turkey and
a duck: the place in which we halted is a fine low-ground,
with much timber, such as red cedar, honeylocust, oak, arrowwood,
elm and coffeenut.
September 5, 1804
September 5, Wednesday. The wind was again high from
the south. At five miles, we came to a large island, called
Pawnee island, in the middle of the river; and stopped to
breakfast at a small creek on the north, which has the name
of Goat creek, at eight and a half miles. Near the mouth
of this creek the beaver had made a dam across so as to
form a large pond, in which they built their houses. Above
this island the river Poncara falls into the Missouri from
the south, and is thirty yards wide at the entrance. Two
men whom we dispatched to the village of the same name,
returned with information that they had found it on the
lower side of the creek; but as this is the hunting season,
the town was so completely deserted that they had killed
a buffalo in the village itself. This tribe of Poncaras,
who are said to have once numbered four hundred men, are
now reduced to about fifty, and have associated for mutual
protection with the Mahas, who are about two hundred in
number. These two nations are allied by a similarity of
misfortune; they were once both numerous, both resided in
villages, and cultivated Indian corn; their common enemies,
the Sioux and small-pox, drove them from their towns, which
they visit only occasionally for the purposes of trade;
and they now wander over the plains on the sources of the
Wolf and Quieurre rivers. Between the Pawnee island and
Goat creek on the north, is a cliff of blue earth, under
which are several mineral springs, impregnated with salts:
near this we observed a number of goats, from which the
creek derives its name. At three and a half miles from the
creek, we came to a large island on the south, along which
we passed to the head of it, and encamped about four o'clock.
Here we replaced the mast we had lost, with a new one of
cedar: some bucks and an elk were procured to-day, and a
black tailed deer was seen near the Poncara's village.
September 6, 1804
Thursday, September 6. There was a storm this morning
from the N.W. and though it moderated, the wind was still
high, and the weather very cold; the number of sandbars
too, added to the rapidity of the current, obliged us to
have recourse to the towline: with all our exertions we
did not make more than eight and a half miles, and encamped
on the north, after passing high cliffs of soft, blue, and
red colored stone, on the southern shore. We saw some goats,
and great numbers of buffalo, in addition to which the hunters
furnished us with elk, deer, turkies, geese, and one beaver:
a large catfish too was caught in the evening. The ground
near the camp, was a low prarie, without timber, though
just below is a grove of cottonwood.
September 7, 1804
Friday, September 7. The morning was very cold and
the wind southeast. At five and a half miles, we reached
and encamped at the foot of a round mountain, on the south,
having passed two small islands. This mountain, which is
about three hundred feet at the base, forms a cone at the
top, resembling a dome at a distance, and seventy feet or
more above the surrounding highlands. As we descended from
this dome, we arrived at a spot, on the gradual descent
of the hill, nearly four acres in extent, and covered with
small holes: these are the residence of a little animal,
called by the French, petit chien (little dog) who sit erect
near the mouth, and make a whistling noise, but when alarmed
take refuge in their holes. In order to bring them out,
we poured into one of the holes five barrels of water without
filling it, but we dislodged and caught the owner. After
digging down another of the holes for six feet, we found,
on running a pole into it, that we had not yet dug half
way to the bottom: we discovered, however, two frogs in
the hole, and near it we killed a dark rattlesnake, which
had swallowed a small prairie dog: we were also informed,
though we never witnessed the fact, that a sort of lizard,
and a snake, live habitually with these animals. The petit
chien are justly named, as they resemble a small dog in
some particulars, though they have also some points of similarity
to the squirrel. The head resembles the squirrel in every
respect, except that the ear is shorter, the tail like that
of the ground-squirrel, the toe-nails are long, the fur
is fine, and the long hair is gray.
September 8, 1804
Saturday, September 8. The wind still continued from
the southeast, but moderately. At seven miles we reached
a house on the north side, called the Pawnee house, where
a trader, named Trudeau, wintered in the year 1796-7: behind
this, hills, much higher than usual, appear to the north,
about eight miles off. Before reaching this house, we came
by three small islands, on the north side, and a small creek
on the south; and after leaving it, reached another, at
the end of seventeen miles, on which we encamped, and called
it Boat island: we here saw herds of buffalo, and some elk,
deer, turkies, beaver, a squirrel, and a prairie dog. The
party on the north represent the country through which they
passed, as poor, rugged, and hilly, with the appearance
of having been lately burnt by the Indians; the broken hills,
indeed, approach the river on both sides, though each is
bordered by a strip of woodland near the water.
September 9, 1804
Sunday, September 9. We coasted along the island
on which we had encamped, and then passed three sand and
willow islands, and a number of smaller sandbars. The river
is shallow, and joined by two small creeks from the north,
and one from the south. In the plains, to the south, are
great numbers of buffalo, in herds of nearly five hundred;
all the copses of timber appear to contain elk or deer.
We encamped on a sandbar, on the southern shore, at the
distance of fourteen and a quarter miles.
September 10, 1804
September 10, Monday. The next day we made twenty
miles. The morning was cloudy and dark, but a light breeze
from the southeast carried us past two small islands on
the south, and one on the north; till, at the distance of
ten and a half miles, we reached an island, extending for
two miles in the middle of the river, covered with red cedar,
from which it derives its name of Cedar island. Just below
this island, on a hill, to the south, is the backbone of
a fish, forty-five feet long, tapering towards the tail,
and in a perfect state of petrifaction, fragments of which
were collected and sent to Washington. On both sides of
the river are high dark-colored bluffs. About a mile and
a half from the island, on the southern shore, the party
on that side discovered a large and very strong impregnated
spring of water; and another, not so strongly impregnated,
half a mile up the hill. Three miles beyond Cedar island
is a large island on the north, and a number of sandbars.
After which is another, about a mile in length, lying in
the middle of the river, and separated by a small channel,
at its extremity, from another above it, on which we encamped.
These two islands are called Mud islands. The river is shallow
during this day's course, and is falling a little. The elk
and buffalo are in great abundance, but the deer have become
scarce,
September 11, 1804
September 11, Tuesday. At six and a half miles we
passed the upper extremity of an island on the south; four
miles beyond which is another on the same side of the river;
and about a quarter of a mile distant we visited a large
village of the barking-squirrel. It was situated on a gentle
declivity, and covered a space of nine hundred and seventy
yards long, and eight hundred yards wide; we killed four
of them. We then resumed our course, and during five and
a half miles passed two islands on the north, and then encamped
at the distance of sixteen miles, on the south side of the
river, and just above a small run. The morning had been
cloudy, but in the afternoon it began raining, with a high
northwest wind, which continued during the greater part
of the night. The country seen to-day consists of narrow
strips of lowland, rising into uneven grounds, which are
succeeded, at the distance of three miles, by rich and level
plains, but without any timber. The river itself is wide,
and crowded with sandbars. Elk, deer, squirrels, a pelican,
and a very large porcupine, were our game this day; some
foxes too were seen, but not caught.
In the morning we observed a man riding on horseback down
towards the boat, and we were much pleased to find that
it was George Shannon, one of our party, for whose safety
we had been very uneasy. Our two horses having strayed from
us on the 26th of August, he was sent to search for them.
After he had found them he attempted to rejoin us, but seeing
some other tracks, which must have been those of Indians,
and which he mistook for our own, he concluded that we were
ahead, and had been for sixteen days following the bank
of the river above us. During the first four days he exhausted
his bullets, and was then nearly starved, being obliged
to subsist, for twelve days, on a few grapes, and a rabbit
which he killed by making use of a hard piece of stick for
a ball. One of his horses gave out, and was left behind;
the other he kept as a last resource for food. Despairing
of overtaking us, he was returning down the river, in hopes
of meeting some other boat; and was on the point of killing
his horse, when he was so fortunate as to join us.
September 12, 1804
Wednesday, September 12. The day was dark and cloudy;
the wind from the northwest. At a short distance we reached
an island in the middle of the river, which is covered with
timber, a rare object now. We with great difficulty were
enabled to struggle through the sandbars, the water being
very rapid and shallow, so that we were several hours in
making a mile. Several times the boat wheeled on the bar,
and the men were obliged to jump out and prevent her from
upsetting; at others, after making a way up one channel,
the shoalness of the water forced us back to seek the deep
channel. We advanced only four miles in the whole day and
encamped on the south. Along both sides of the river are
high grounds; on the southern side particularly, they form
dark bluffs, in which may be observed slate and coal intermixed.
We saw also several villages of barking-squirrels; great
numbers of growse, and three foxes.
September 13, 1804
September 13, Thursday. We made twelve miles to-day
through a number of sandbars, which make it difficult to
find the proper channel. The hills on each side are high,
and separated from the river by a narrow plain on its borders.
On the north, these lowlands are covered in part with timber,
and great quantities of grapes, which are now ripe: on the
south we found plenty of plums, but they are not yet ripe;
and near the dark bluffs, a run tainted with allum and copperas;
the southern side being more strongly impregnated with minerals
than the northern. Last night four beaver were caught in
the traps; a porcupine was shot as it was upon a cottontree,
feeding on its leaves and branches. We encamped on the north
side, opposite to a small willow island. At night the mosquitoes
were very troublesome, though the weather was cold and rainy
and the wind from the northwest.
September 14, 1804
Friday, September 14. At two miles we reached a round
island on the northern side; at about five, a run on the
south; two and a half miles further, a small creek; and
at nine miles encamped near the month of a creek, on the
same side. The sandbars are very numerous, and render the
river wide and shallow, and obliged the crew to get into
the water and drag the boat over the bars several times.
During the whole day we searched along the southern shore,
and at some distance into the interior, to find an ancient
volcano which we heard at St. Charles was somewhere in this
neighborhood; but we could not discern the slightest appearance
of any thing volcanic. In the course of their search the
party shot a buck-goat and a hare. The hills, particularly
on the south, continue high, but the timber is confined
to the islands and banks of the river. We had occasion here
to observe the rapid undermining of these hills by the Missouri:
the first attacks seem to be on the hills which overhang
the river; as soon as the violence of the current destroys
the grass at the foot of them, the whole texture appears
loosened, and the ground dissolves and mixes with the water:
the muddy mixture is then forced over the low-grounds, which
it covers sometimes to the depth of three inches, and gradually
destroys the herbage; after which it can offer no resistance
to the water, and becomes at last covered with sand.
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