September 5, 1806
97.78% Complete
Aug 30, 1803 Sep 30, 1806

September 5, 1806

 

The Musquetors being So excessively tormenting that the party was all on board and we Set out at day light and proceeded on very well.    here the river is bordered on both [sides?] with timber &c    becoms much narrower more Crooked and the Current more rapid and Crouded with Snags or Sawyers than it is above, and continus So all day. We did not meet with McClellen as we expected at the Creek. [1]    the report of the guns which was heard must have been the Mahars who most probably have just arrived at their village from hunting the buffalow.    this is a Season they usialy return to their village to Secure their Crops of Corn Beens punkins &c &c.    proceeded on very well    passd. the blue Stone bluff [2] at 3 P. M here the river leaves the high lands and meanders through a low rich bottom. Encamped on the S W Side on a Sand bar at a cut off a little below our Encampment of the 9th of August 1804. [3]    haveing made 73 Miles to day—    Capt. Lewis still in a Convelesent State. We Saw no game on the Shores to day worth killig only Such as pelicans Geese ducks, Eagles and Hawks &c.—

 

Friday 5th Sept. 1806.    a fair morning.    we were routed at day light by the Musquetoes.    we Set out and procd. on verry well without making any delay.    we having made 75 miles this day and Camped on a Sand beach to git as much out of the Musquetoes as possable.—

 

Friday 5th    This was a fine morning, and we early embarked, and went on very well, till night, when we encamped on a sand-bar, where the musketoes were very troublesome.

1. Presumably Omadi Creek in Dakota County, Nebraska, nameless on Atlas map 16. They did not meet McClellan until September 12, 1806. MRC map 27. (back)
2. Bluestone Bluff is composed of the light-to dark-gray, sandy, carbonaceous shale of the middle unit of the Lower and Upper Cretaceous Dakota group. At 3:00 p.m., the sun would have had an azimuth of about 245° and would have been almost directly behind the bluffs; additionally, at that time the sun would have had an altitude of about 35° above the horizon. The bluffs, thus, would have been partly in shadow, a condition which would have enhanced the sensation of a blue coloration. Atlas map 15; MRC map 26. (back)
3. This camp would be in Monona County, Iowa, a few miles south of present Onawa, near the southern end of Guard Lake, the old river course. Atlas map 15; MRC map 26. (back)