Marias River decision camp — Patrick Gass: June 5, 1805
On a cloudy morning following a rainy night, the party spotted three bears approaching along the river and killed all of them before setting out across the plains. They observed a snow-covered mountain to the south and, after about 11 miles, another tall snow-covered range running north to south to the west. Captain Clark judged the river's southwesterly course suitable for their voyage and decided to turn back toward camp. After roughly 15 miles, they reached the small river, killed elk and deer, and camped in timbered bottoms abundant with game and a flax-like plant.
night, and the morning was cloudy. When preparing to set
out we discovered three bears coming up the river towards
us; we therefore halted a while and killed the whole of them.
About 7 we set out along the plains again, and discovered the
mountain South of us covered with snow, that had fallen last
night. When we had gone about 11 miles we saw a large
mountain to the West of us also covered with snow. This
mountain appeared to run from North to South, and to be
very high. The bearing of the river is still South West.
Captain Clarke thought this a good course for us to proceed
on our voyage, and we turned back towards the camp again.
We went about 15 miles and struck the small river about 20
96 GASS’S JOURNAL OF THE
miles from its mouth. Here we killed some elk and deer and
encamped all night. There is a great deal of timber in the
bottoms of this little river, and plenty of different kinds of
game. In these bottoms I saw the stalks of a plant resem-
bling flax in every particular.
Read this entry in modern English AI-translated
night, and the morning was cloudy. When preparing to set out we discovered three bears coming up the river towards us; we therefore halted a while and killed all of them. About 7 we set out along the plains again, and saw the mountain south of us covered with snow that had fallen last night. When we had gone about 11 miles we saw a large mountain to the west of us also covered with snow. This mountain appeared to run from north to south, and to be very high. The bearing of the river is still southwest. Captain Clarke (Captain Clark) thought this a good course for us to proceed on our voyage, and we turned back towards the camp again.
We went about 15 miles and struck the small river about 20 miles from its mouth. Here we killed some elk and deer and camped for the night. There is a great deal of timber in the bottoms of this little river, and plenty of different kinds of game. In these bottoms I saw the stalks of a plant resembling flax in every particular.
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