Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis

Author:Meriwether Lewis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2002-08-09T16:00:00+00:00

August 3, 1805, Saturday [Lewis]

Set out early this morning, or before sunrise, still continued our march through the level valley on the larboard side of the river. The valley much as yesterday only rather wider; I think it is 12 miles wide, though the plains near the mountains rise higher and are more broken with some scattering pine near the mountain. In the leveler parts of the plain and river bottoms, which are very extensive, there is no timber except a scant proportion of cottonwood near the river. The underwood consists of the narrow-leaved or small willow, the small honeysuckle, rosebushes, currant, serviceberry, and gooseberry bushes, also a small species of birch in but small quantities, the leaf of which is oval, finely indented, small and of a deep green color. The stem is simple, ascending and branching, and seldom rises higher than 10 or 12 feet. The mountains continue high on either side of the valley and are but scantily supplied with timber. Small pine appears to be the prevalent growth. It is of the pitch kind, with a short leaf. At 11 a.m. Drouillard killed a doe and we halted about two hours and breakfasted, and then continued our route until night without halting, when we arrived at the river in a level bottom which appeared to spread to a greater extent than usual. From the appearance of the timber I supposed that the river forked above us and resolved to examine this part of the river minutely tomorrow.

This evening we passed through a high plain for about eight miles covered with prickly pears and bearded grass, though we found this even better walking than the wide bottoms of the river, which we passed in the evening. These, although apparently level, from some cause which I know not, were formed into myriads of deep holes as if rooted up by hogs. These the grass covered so thick that it was impossible to walk without the risk of falling down at every step. Some parts of these bottoms also possess excellent turf or peat, I believe of many feet deep. The mineral salts also frequently mentioned on the Missouri we saw this evening in these uneven bottoms. We saw many deer, antelope, ducks, geese, some beaver and great appearance of their work, also a small bird and the curlew as usual.

We encamped on the riverbank on the larboard side, having traveled by estimate 23 miles. The fish of this part of the river are trout and a species of scale fish of a white color and a remarkable small long mouth, which one of our men informs us are the same with the species called in the Eastern states bottlenose. The snowy region of the mountains and for some distance below has no timber or herbage of any kind; the timber is confined to the lower and middle regions.

Capt. Clark set out this morning as usual. He walked on shore a small distance this morning and killed a deer.

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