Fort Mandan, North Dakota — Patrick Gass: November 10, 1804
early ; passed high bluffs on the north side, and saw some
timber in the bottom on the south side. At 12 we came to
black sulphur bluffs on the south side. On the top of these
bluffs we found the skeleton or back bones of a fish, 45 feet
long, and petrified : part of these bones were sent to the city
of Washington. One of our sergeants discovered a large salt
spring about a mile and a half from the river. A hunter went
up the bank and killed an elk. We left a periogue for the
men who were dressing the elk, and proceeded up the north
side of the river two miles, when we were obliged to return
LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 31
on account of sand bars, and to take the south side. Here we
saw eight elk swimming the river, and had seen a great many
buffaloe during the day. We encamped on an island and
killed one buffaloe.
Entities mentioned in this entry
Auto-extracted from the entry text. Hover any entity for context.
Terrain360 · the place today
Fort Mandan (winter) in 360°
10 frames across 1.8 mi of the route around this location
Help improve this record
See something that needs correcting, or know a source we are missing? The archive gets better through its readers.
