Lewis: June 4, 1805

Tuesday June 4th 1805. This morning early Capt. C. (Capt. Clark) departed, and at the same time I crossed the right hand fork opposite to our camp below a small island. From there I steered N. 30 W. 4½ miles to a commanding height; here I took the following bearings of the mountains which were in view. The North Mountains appear to change their direction from being parallel with the Missouri, turning to the north and terminating abruptly; their termination bears N. 48° E, distant by estimate 30 miles. The South Mountains appear to turn to the south, also terminating abruptly, their extremity bearing S. 8 W., distant 25 miles. The Barn Mountain, a lofty mountain so called from its resemblance to the roof of a large barn, is a separate mountain and appears rather to the right of and retreating from the extremity of the South Mountains; this bore S. 38 W., distant 35 miles. The north fork which I am now ascending lies to my left and appears to make a considerable bend to the northwest. On its western border a range of hills about 10 miles long appears to lie parallel with the river, and from here bears N. 60° W. To the north of this range of hills, an elevated point of the river bluff on its larboard side bore N. 72° W., distant 12 miles. To this last object I now directed my course through a high, level, dry, open plain.

The whole country in fact appears to be one continuous plain to the foot of the mountains, or as far as the eye can reach. The soil appears dark, rich, and fertile, yet the grass is by no means as high nor does it look so luxuriant as I should have expected; it is short, just sufficient to conceal the ground. There is a great abundance of prickly pears, which are extremely troublesome, as the thorns very readily pierce the foot through the moccasin; they are so numerous that it requires one half of the traveler's attention to avoid them.

In these plains I observed great numbers of the brown curlews, a small species of curlew or plover of a brown color, about the size of the common snipe and not unlike it in form, with a long cylindrical, curved, and pointed beak. Its wings are proportionately long and the tail short. In the act of alighting this bird lets itself down by an extension of its wings without motion, holding their points very much together above its back, in this respect differing essentially from any bird I ever observed. I also observed a number of sparrows of three distinct species. Also a small bird which in action resembles the lark; it is about the size of a large sparrow, of a dark brown color with some white feathers in the tail. This bird, or that which I take to be the male, rises into the air about 60 feet and, supporting itself in the air with a brisk motion of the wings, sings very sweetly. It has several shrill, soft notes rather of the plaintive order, which it frequently repeats and varies. After remaining stationary about a minute in his aerial station, he descends obliquely, occasionally pausing and accompanying his descent with a note something like twit twit twit. On the ground he is silent. Thirty or forty of these birds will be stationed in the air at a time in view. These larks, as I shall call them, add much to the gaiety and cheerfulness of the scene. All these birds are now setting and laying their eggs in the plains; their little nests are to be seen in great abundance as we pass. There are myriads of small grasshoppers in these plains, which no doubt furnish the principal nourishment of this numerous progeny of the feathered creation.

After walking about eight miles I grew thirsty, and there being no water in the plains, I changed my direction and bore obliquely in toward the river. On my arrival at it, about 3 miles below the point of observation, we discovered two deer feeding at some distance near the river. I halted the party here and sent Drewyer to kill one of them for breakfast; this excellent hunter soon exceeded his orders by killing both of them. They proved to be two mule bucks in fine order. We soon kindled a fire, cooked, and made a hearty meal. It was not yet twelve when we arrived at the river, and I was anxious to take the meridian altitude of the sun, but the clouds prevented me from obtaining the observation.

After refreshing ourselves we proceeded up the river to the extremity of the first course, from where the river bore on its general course N. 15° W. 2 miles to a bluff point on starboard. Here Drewyer killed four other deer of the common kind. We skinned them and hung up a part of the meat and the skins, as we did also of the first, and took as much of the meat as we thought would answer for our suppers, and proceeded N. 30 W. 2 miles to the entrance of a large creek on the larboard side. The part of the river we have passed is from 40 to 60 yards wide, is deep, has falling banks, the current strong, the water turbid, and in short has every appearance of the Missouri below, except as to size. Its bottoms are narrow but well timbered. Salts, coal, and other mineral appearances as usual; the bluffs are principally of dark brown, yellow, and some white clay; some freestone also appears in places.

The river now bore N. 20° E. 12 miles to a bluff on larboard. At the commencement of this course we ascended the hills, which are about 200 feet high, and passed through the plains about 3 miles, but finding the dry ravines so steep and numerous, we determined to return to the river and travel through its bottoms and along the foot and sides of the bluffs. Accordingly we again reached the river about 4 miles from the commencement of the last course, and camped a small distance above on the starboard side in a bend among the willow bushes, which defended us from the wind which blew hard from the northwest. It rained this evening and wet us to the skin; the air was extremely cold. Just before we camped, Drewyer fired at a large brown bear across the river and wounded him badly, but it was too late to pursue him. He killed a badger and a beaver, also at the place of our encampment a very fine mule deer. We saw a great number of buffalo, elk, wolves, and foxes today. The river bottoms form one immense garden of roses, now in full bloom.