Bitterroot crossing attempt, turned back by snow — Patrick Gass: June 12, 1806
The party hunted through a dewy morning until mosquitoes drove them back by 10 o'clock without success. The man sent to retrieve a horse returned, followed by four overnight hunters, one of whom brought in two deer. Gass notes the area holds deer, wary bears, ground-burrowing speckled squirrels, magpies, and an unfamiliar black woodpecker tipped with red. Later, one native visited camp and expressed interest in crossing the mountains with the expedition. More hunters set out in the evening planning to stay overnight.
dew. I went out with some of the party to hunt; about 8
o’clock the musquitoes became very troublesome; and at 10
we all came in without any success. About the same time the
man, who had gone back for the horse returned with him.
About an hour after four hunters, who had been out during
the night came in; three of them had been without success,
but the other brought in two deer. There are a good many
deer here, and some bears, but they are very wild, as they are
much pursued by the natives. There is no game of any other
kind except squirrels and some other small animals. The
squirrels are about the size of our common grey squirrels,
and very handsome. They are of a brown grey colour, beau-
tifully speckled with small brown spots, and burrow in the
ground. We killed several of them since we came to this
camp. The magpie is also plenty here, and woodpeckers of a
different kind from any I had before seen. They are about
the size of a common red-headed woodpecker; but are all
black except the belly and neck, where the ends of the feathers
are tipped with a deep red, but this tipping extends to so
short a distance on the feathers, that at a distance the bird
looks wholly black. In the afternoon one of the natives
came to our camp, and one of the two hunters that were out,
24.4 GASS’S JOURNAL OF THE
returned but had killed nothing. In the evening some hunters
went out with intention to stay all night. The Indian who
came to our camp said he had a notion to cross the mountains
with us.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
Dew. I went out with some of the party to hunt; about 8 o'clock the mosquitoes became very troublesome; and at 10 we all came in without any success. About the same time the man, who had gone back for the horse, returned with him. About an hour later, four hunters who had been out during the night came in; three of them had been without success, but the other brought in two deer. There are a good many deer here, and some bears, but they are very wild, as they are much pursued by the natives. There is no game of any other kind except squirrels and some other small animals.
The squirrels are about the size of our common grey squirrels, and very handsome. They are of a brown-grey color, beautifully speckled with small brown spots, and burrow in the ground. We have killed several of them since we came to this camp. The magpie is also plentiful here, and woodpeckers of a different kind from any I had seen before. They are about the size of a common red-headed woodpecker, but are all black except the belly and neck, where the ends of the feathers are tipped with a deep red. This tipping extends so short a distance on the feathers that at a distance the bird looks wholly black.
In the afternoon one of the natives came to our camp, and one of the two hunters that were out returned, but had killed nothing. In the evening some hunters went out with the intention of staying all night. The Indian who came to our camp said he had a notion to cross the mountains with us.
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