Meriwether Lewis: September 11, 1803

I made my dog take as many each day as I had occation for, they wer[e] fat and I thought them when fryed a pleasent food — many of these squirrils were black, they swim very light on the water and make pretty good speed — my dog was of the newfoundland breed very active strong and docile, he would take the squirel in the water kill them and swiming bring them in his mouth to the boat, we lay this night below the fifth Island in the long reach on the E. side of the river having come 26 miles.

Source: Lewis’s 1803 journal, printed in Quaife, The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sergeant John Ordway (Wisconsin Historical Society, 1916). Public domain.