November 16-28, 1804
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Aug 30, 1803 Sep 30, 1806

November 16-28, 1804

 

About the 16th, the weather became very cold, and the ice began to run in the river. We sent a Frenchman [1] down to enquire about the hunters and the periogue. He and one of the hunters returned to the fort, having left the periogue and the rest about 30 miles below. The Frenchman was sent down again with a rope, and returned by land. On the 19th the hunters came up with the periogue loaded with the meat of about thirty deer, eleven elk and some buffaloe. In the cold weather we moved into the huts, though not finished. From the 20th to the 27th we had fine pleasant weather, and on the evening of the latter finished the roofs of our huts. These were made of puncheons split out of cotton wood and then hewed. The cotton wood resembles the lombardy poplar, and is a light soft wood. [2] The largest trees are in thickness about eighteen inches diameter. On the night of the 27th the snow fell seven inches deep, and the 28th was stormy.

1. The unnamed Frenchman, either one of the expedition engagés or one of the trappers or interpreters who joined them for the winter, set out on November 14 and returned on the fifteenth, according to Clark. (back)
2. The cottonwood is plains cottonwood again, while the Lombardy poplar is an introduced European species, Populus nigra L. var. italica DuRoi. (back)