Created by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
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All our hunters except Gibson returned about noon; none of them had killed anything ecept Sheilds who brought with him two deer. in the evening they resumed their hunt and remained out all night. an indian visited us this evening and spent the night at our camp. Whitehouse returned with his horse at 1 P. M. the days are now very warm and the Musquetoes [1] our old companions have become very troublesome. The Cutnose [2] informed us on the 10th before we left him that two young men would overtake us with a view to accompany me to the falls of the Missouri. nothing interesting occurred in the course of this day. our camp is agreeably situated in a point of timbered land on the eastern border of an extensive level and beautifull prarie which is intersected by several small branches near the bank of one of which our camp is placed. the quawmash is now in blume and from the colour of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so complete is this deseption that on first sight I could have swoarn it was water.
All our hunters except Gibson returned about noon; none of them had killed any thing except Shields who brought with him two deer. in the evening they resumed their hunt and remained out all night. an Indian visited us this evening and Spent the night at our Camp. Whitehouse returned with his horse at 1 P. M. the days are very worm and the Musquetors our old Companions have become very troublesom.
The Cutnose informed us on the 10th before we left him that two young Chiefs would overtake us with a view to accompany us to the Falls of the Missouri and probably to the Seat of our Governmt. nothing interesting occurred in the course of this day. our camp is agreeable Situated in a point of timbered land on the eastern borders of an extensive leavel and butifull prarie which is intersected by Several Small branches near the bank of one of which our Camp is placed. the quawmash is now in blume at a Short distance it resemhles a lake of fine clear water, So complete is this deseption that on first Sight I could have Sworn it was water.
Thursday 12th June 1806. a clear pleasant morning. a number more hunters went out eairly to hunt. about 10 oClock Some of them came in Shields had killed two fine bucks and brought in the meat. the rest of the hunters that came in killd. nothing. we fleased what meat we have to dry it for the Mountains. towards evening Several of our hunters went out Some distance to Stay all night and take an eairly hunt in the morning.
Thursday 12th. We had a fine lovely morning with a heavy dew. I went out with some of the party to hunt; about 8 o'clock the musquitoes became very troublesome; and at 10 we all came in without any success. About the same time the man who had gone back for the horse returned with him. About an hour after four hunters, who had been out during the night came in; three of them had been without success, but the other [3] brought in two deer. There are a good many deer here, and some bears, but they are very wild, as they are much pursued by the natives. There is no game of any other kind, except squirrels and some other small animals. The squirrels [4] are about the size of our common grey squirrels, and very handsome. They are of a brown grey colour, beautifully speckled with small brown spots, and burrow in the ground. We killed several of them since we came to this camp. The magpie is also plenty here, and woodpeckers [5] of a different kind from any I had before seen. They are about the size of a common red-headed woodpecker; but are all black except the belly and neck, where the ends of the feathers are tipped with a deep red, but this tipping extends to so short a distance on the feathers, that at a distance the bird looks wholly black. In the afternoon one of the natives came to our camp, and one of the two hunters that were out, returned but had killed nothing. In the evening some hunters went out with intention to stay all night. The Indian who came to our camp said he had a notion to cross the mountains with us.
Created by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
in partnership with the University of Nebraska Press
and funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.