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The morning was somewhat cloudy I therefore apprehended rain however it shortly after became fair. I hastened the repairs which were necessary to the perogue and canoe which were compleated by 2 P. M. those not engaged about this business employed themselves as yesterday. at 4 in the evening it clouded up and began to rain which puting a stop to the opperation of skindressing we had nothing further to detain us, I therefore directed the vessels to be loaded and at 5 P. M. got under way the wind has blown very hard all day but did not prove so much so this evening as absolutely to detain us. we decended this evening as low nearly as the entrance of white Earth river and encamped on the S. W. side. [1] the musquetoes more than usually troublesome this evening.
had the flesh of the elk hung on poles to dry, and Sent out the hunters. wind blew hard from the East all day. in the after part of the day it was [NB: Cloudy] & a fiew drops of rain. I finished a Copy of my Sketches of the River Rochejhone. [3] Shields killed a black tail deer & an antilope. the other hunters killed nothing. deer are very Scerce on this part of the river. I found a Species of Cherry [4] in the bottom the Srub or bush which are differant from any which I have ever Seen and not very abundant even in this Small tract of country to which it Seems to be confined. the Stem is compound erect and subdivided or branching without any regular order. it rises to the hight of 8 or 10 feet Seldom putting out more than one Stem from the Same root not growing in cops as the Choke Cherry does. the bark is Smooth and of a dark brown colour. the leaf is petialate, oval accutely pointed at it's apex, from 1 and a ¼ to one and a ½ inch in length and from a half to ¾ of an inch in wedth, finely or manutely Serrate, pale green and free from bubessance. The fruit is a globular berry about the Size of a buck Shot of a fine Scarlet red; like the cherries cultivated in the U. States each is supported by a Seperate Celindric flexable branch peduncle which issues from the extremities of the boughs. the peduncle of this cherry Swells as it approaches the fruit being largest at the point of insertion. the pulp of this fruit is of an agreeable ascid flavour and is now ripe. the Style and Stigma are permanent. I have never Seen it in blume. it is found on the high Stiff [5] lands or hill Sides—. the men dug great parcel of the root which the Nativs call Hankee [6] and the engagees the white apple which they boiled and made use of with their meat. This is a large insipid root and very tasteless. the nativs use this root after it is dry and pounded in their Seup.
Sunday 10th August, 1806. a cool windy morning we went at reppairing the white perogue and continued dressing our deer Skins and Smoaking them. about three P. M. we put the canoes in the river, and loaded up and about 4 we Set out and procd. on down untill dark and Camped on St. Side and the musquetoes verry troublesome indeed. we could not all this night git a moment quiet rest for them.—
Sunday 10th. We had a fine morning and were employed in repairing the periogue and dressing skins, until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when we got the periogue completed, loaded our craft, and at four o'clock proceeded on to the mouth of White-earth river, and encamped opposite it on the same bottom, where we encamped on the 21st April 1805. In the afternoon some drops of rain fell; and the musquitoes here were very bad indeed.
Created by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
in partnership with the University of Nebraska Press
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