Lewis: July 26, 1805

Friday July 26th 1805. Set out early this morning as usual; the current was strong with frequent riffles. We used the cord and setting poles. The oars were scarcely ever used except to cross the river in order to take advantage of the shore and current. At the distance of 3 3/4 miles we passed the entrance of a large creek 15 yards wide which discharges itself on the larboard side near the center of a larboard bend. It is a bold running stream; this we called Howard's Creek after Thomas P. Howard, one of our party. At the distance of one mile further we passed the entrance of a small run which falls in just above a rocky cliff on the larboard side. Here the hills, or rather mountains, again recede from the river and the valley again widens to the extent of several miles with wide and fertile bottom lands, covered with grass and in many places a fine turf of greensward.

The high lands are of thin, meager soil covered with dry low sedge and a species of grass, also dry, the seeds of which are armed with a long twisted hard beard at the upper extremity, while the lower point is a sharp subulate firm point beset at its base with little stiff bristles standing with their points in a direction contrary to the subulate point, to which they serve as a barb and also help to press it forward once it has entered a small distance. These barbed seeds penetrate our moccasins and leather leggings and give us great pain until they are removed. My poor dog suffers with them excessively; he is constantly hunting and scratching himself as if in a rack of pain. The prickly pear also grows here as abundantly as usual. There is another species of the prickly pear of a globular form, composed of an assemblage of little conic leaves springing from a common root to which their small points are attached as a common center, and the base of the cone forms the apex of the leaf, which is garnished with a circular range of sharp thorns quite as stiff and more keen than the more common species with the flat leaf, like the Cochineal plant.

On entering this open valley I saw the snow-clad tops of distant mountains before us. The timber and mountains were much as heretofore. Saw a number of beaver today and some otter; killed one of the former, also 4 deer. Found a deer's skin which had been left by Capt. C. (Capt. Clark) with a note informing me that he had met with a horse but had seen no fresh sign of the Indians. The river in the valley is from 200 to 250 yards wide and crowded with islands; in some places it is 3/4 of a mile wide including islands. Where it passed the hills it was from 150 to 200 yards. The banks are still low but never overflow. One of the men brought me an Indian bow which he had found; it was made of cedar and about 2 feet 9 inches in length. There was nothing remarkable in its form, being much like those used by the Mandans, Minetares, etc.

This morning Capt. Clark left Sharbono (Charbonneau) and Joseph Fields at the camp of last evening and proceeded up the river about 12 miles to the top of a mountain, from which he had an extensive view of the valley of the river upwards and of a large creek which flowed into it on the starboard side. Not meeting with any fresh sign of Indians, he determined to return and examine the middle fork of the Missouri and meet me by the time he expected me to arrive at the forks. He returned down the mountain by way of an old Indian road which led through a deep hollow of the mountain facing the south. The day being warm and the road unshaded by timber, he suffered excessively from heat and the want of water. At length he arrived at a very cold spring, at which he took the precaution of wetting his feet, head, and hands before he drank, but notwithstanding this precaution he soon felt the effects of the water. He felt very unwell shortly after but continued his march and rejoined Sharbono and Fields, where the party ate of a fawn which Jo. Fields had killed in their absence. Capt. C. was so unwell that he had no inclination to eat.

After a short rest he resumed his march and passed the North fork at a large island. Here Charbono was very near being swept away by the current, and he cannot swim; Capt. C. however risked himself and saved his life. Capt. C. continued his march to a small river which falls into the North fork some miles above the junction of the three forks, it being a distance of about four miles from his camp of last evening. Here, finding himself still more unwell, he determined to camp. They killed two brown or grizzly bear this evening on the island where they crossed the North fork of the Missouri. This stream is much divided by islands and its current is rapid, much like that of the Missouri where we are, and it is navigable.