Lewis: July 12, 1805
Held up by high winds, Lewis sent Sergeant Gass with three men upriver to help Captain Clark finish building canoes, keeping only enough men to load the six canoes in one trip. The canoes finally arrived too late in the day to continue, so departure was postponed until morning. Bratton came for axes and returned. Clark's hunters killed three deer and two otter. Sergeant Pryor's dislocated shoulder, reset the day before, remained painful. Mosquitoes and swarming black gnats plagued the camp. Lewis had about 200 pounds of meat dried and noted the kingfisher's presence.
Friday July 12th 1805. The canoes not having arrived and the wind still
high I dispatched Sergt. Gass with three men to join Capt. Clark and
assist in completing the canoes retaining only a few who in addition to
those in the canoes that I expect every moment, will be sufficient to man
the six canoes and take up all the baggage we have here at one load. I
feel excessively anxious to be moving on. the canoes were detained by the
wind untill 2 P.M. when they set out and arrived at this place so late
that I thought it best to detain them untill morning. Bratton came down
today for a cople of axes which I sent by him; he returned immediately.
Sergt. Gass and party joined Capt. Clark at 10 A.M. Capt. C. kept all the
men with him busily engaged some in drying meat, others in hunting, and as
many as could be employed about the canoes. Segt. Pryor got his sholder
dislocated yesterday, it was replaced immediately and is likely to do him
but little injury; it is painfull to him today. the hunters with Capt. C.
killed three deer and two otter today. the otter are now plenty since the
water has become sufficiently clear for them to take fish. the blue
crested fisher, or as they are sometimes called the Kingfisher, is an
inhabitant of this part of the country; this bird is very rare on the
Missouri; I have not seen more than three or four of those birds during my
voyage from the entrance of the Missouri to the mouth of Maria’s river and
those few were reather the inhabitants of streams of clerer water which
discharged themselves into the Missouri than of that river, as they were
seen about the entrances of such streams. Musquetoes extreemly troublesome
to me today nor is a large black knat less troublesome, which dose not
sting, but attacks the eye in swarms and compells us to brush them off or
have our eyes filled with them. I made the men dry the ballance of the
freshe meet which we had abot the camp amounting to about 200 lbs.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
Friday, July 12th, 1805. Since the canoes had not arrived and the wind was still high, I dispatched Sergt. Gass (Sergeant Gass) with three men to join Capt. Clark (Captain Clark) and assist in completing the canoes, retaining only a few who, in addition to those in the canoes that I expect at any moment, will be sufficient to man the six canoes and take up all the baggage we have here in one load. I feel extremely anxious to be moving on. The canoes were detained by the wind until 2 P.M., when they set out and arrived at this place so late that I thought it best to detain them until morning. Bratton came down today for a couple of axes, which I sent by him; he returned immediately.
Sergt. Gass and his party joined Capt. Clark at 10 A.M. Capt. C. kept all the men with him busily engaged—some in drying meat, others in hunting, and as many as could be employed about the canoes. Sergt. Pryor (Sergeant Pryor) got his shoulder dislocated yesterday; it was replaced immediately and is likely to do him but little injury, though it is painful to him today. The hunters with Capt. C. killed three deer and two otter today. The otter are now plentiful since the water has become sufficiently clear for them to take fish.
The blue crested fisher, or, as they are sometimes called, the kingfisher, is an inhabitant of this part of the country. This bird is very rare on the Missouri; I have not seen more than three or four of these birds during my voyage from the entrance of the Missouri to the mouth of Maria's river, and those few were rather the inhabitants of streams of clearer water which discharged themselves into the Missouri than of that river itself, as they were seen about the entrances of such streams.
Mosquitoes were extremely troublesome to me today, nor is a large black gnat less troublesome, which does not sting, but attacks the eye in swarms and compels us to brush them off or have our eyes filled with them. I made the men dry the balance of the fresh meat which we had about the camp, amounting to about 200 lbs.
This modernization is AI-generated for accessibility. The original above is the authoritative version.
Entities mentioned in this entry
Auto-extracted from the entry text. Hover any entity for context.
