Lewis: April 5, 1806

Saturday, April 5th, 1806. This morning was so cloudy that I could not obtain any lunar observations with Aquila as I wished. Joseph Fields and Drewyer (Drouillard) departed this morning according to their orders from last evening. At 9 A.M. we sent Sergeant Ordway and a party to assist Sergeant Pryor in bringing in the meat of four elk which he had dried. At 1 P.M. the party returned with the meat. It had been so poorly dried that we feared it would not keep. We therefore directed it to be cut thinner and redried over a fire this evening, as we plan to set out early in the morning. The deerskins which we have had cased for the purpose of containing our dried meat are not themselves sufficiently dried for that purpose, so we directed them to be dried by the fire as well. The weather has been so damp that there was no possibility of pounding the meat as I wished. We were visited today by several parties of the natives as usual; they behaved themselves in a very orderly manner. Observed magnetic azimuth and altitude of the sun with circumferenter and sextant.

Saw the log cock (pileated woodpecker), the hummingbird, geese, ducks, etc. today. The tick has made its appearance; it is the same as those of the Atlantic states. The mosquitoes have also appeared but are not yet troublesome. This morning at 10 o'clock Sergeant Gass returned with Collins and Windsor; they had not succeeded in killing the female bear, though they brought the three cubs with them. The Indians who visited us today took a fancy to these pets and gave us wapato in exchange for them. Drewyer (Drouillard) informed me that he had never known a female bear to return to her young after they had been alarmed by a person and once compelled to leave them. The dogwood grows abundantly on the uplands in this neighborhood. It differs from that of the United States in the appearance of its bark, which is much smoother; it also reaches a much greater size here than I ever observed it elsewhere—sometimes the stem is nearly 2 feet in diameter. We measured a fallen tree of fir No. 1 which was 318 feet long, including the stump, which was about 6 feet high. This tree was only about 3 1/2 feet in diameter. We saw the martin, small geese, the small speckled woodpecker with a white back, the blue crested corvus (Steller's jay), ravens, crows, eagles, vultures, and hawks. The mellow bug and long-legged spider have appeared, as have also the butterfly, blowing fly, and many other insects. I observe none among them that appear to differ from those of our country or that deserve particular notice.