Lewis: August 8, 1805

Thursday, August 8th, 1805. We had a heavy dew this morning. Since one canoe had been left behind, we now had more hands to spare for the chase; game being scarce, it requires more hunters to supply us. We therefore dispatched four this morning. We set out at sunrise and continued our route up the river, which we find much more gentle and deep than below the entrance of Wisdom River. It is from 35 to 45 yards wide, very crooked, with many short bends making up large and general bends, so that although we travel briskly and a considerable distance, it takes us only a few miles along our general course or route. There is but very little timber on this fork, principally the underbrush frequently mentioned. I observe a considerable quantity of the buffalo clover in the bottoms. The sunflower, flax, greensward, thistle, and several species of rye grass, some of which rise to the height of 3 or 4 feet. There is a grass also with a soft, smooth leaf that bears its seeds very much like timothy, but it does not grow very luxuriantly or appear as if it would answer as well as the common timothy for meadows. I preserved some of its seeds, which are now ripe, thinking perhaps it might do better if cultivated; at all events, it is at least worth the experiment. It rises about 3 feet high. On a direct line about 2 miles above our encampment of this morning, we passed the entrance of Philanthropy River, which discharges itself by 2 channels a small distance apart. This river, from its size and southeastward course, no doubt heads with Madison's River in the snowy mountains visible in that direction. At noon, Reubin Fields arrived and reported that he had been up Wisdom River some miles above where it entered the mountain and could find nothing of Shannon. He had killed a deer and an antelope. Great quantities of beaver, otter, and muskrats are in these rivers. Two of the hunters we sent out this morning returned at noon, having killed each a deer and an antelope. We used the setting poles today almost altogether. We camped on the larboard side, where there was but little timber, and were obliged to use willow brush for fuel; the rosebushes and briars were very thick. The hunters brought in another deer this evening. The tumor on Capt. Clark's ankle has discharged a considerable quantity of matter, but it is still much swollen and inflamed and gives him considerable pain. Saw a number of geese, ducks, and some cranes today. The geese are beginning to fly.

The evening again proved cloudy, much to my mortification, and prevented my making any lunar observations. The Indian woman recognized the point of a high plain to our right, which she informed us was not very distant from the summer retreat of her nation on a river beyond the mountains that runs to the west. This hill, she says, her nation calls the Beaver's Head, from a perceived resemblance of its figure to the head of that animal. She assures us that we shall either find her people on this river or on the river immediately west of its source, which, from its present size, cannot be very distant. As it is now all-important with us to meet with those people as soon as possible, I determined to proceed tomorrow with a small party to the source of the principal stream of this river, pass the mountains to the Columbia, and go down that river until I found the Indians. In short, it is my resolution to find them or some others who have horses, even if it should cost me a trip of one month. For without horses, we shall be obliged to leave a great part of our stores, of which, it appears to me, we have a stock already sufficiently small for the length of the voyage before us.