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Peek Inside...Entries For February 12:
1805:
Captain Lewis (current)
Captain Lewis:
February 12, 1805
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This morning was fair though cold. Thermometer 14 degrees below zero. Wind S.E. Ordered the blacksmith to shoe the horses, and some others to prepare some gears in order to send them down with three sleighs to join the hunting party, and transport the meat which they may have procured, to this place. The men whom I had sent for the meat left by Charbonneau did not return until 4 o'clock this evening.
Drouilliard arrived with the horses about the same time. The horses appeared much fatigued. I directed some bran be given them, moistened with a little water, but to my astonishment found that they would not eat it, but preferred the bark of the cottonwood, which forms the principal article of food usually given them by their Indian masters in the winter season. For this purpose, they cause the tree to be felled by their women, and the horses feed on the boughs and bark of their tender branches. The Indians in our neighborhood are frequently pilfered of their horses by the Arikaras, Sioux, and Assiniboines, and therefore make it an invariable rule to put their horses in their lodges at night. In this situation, the only food of the horses consists of a few sticks of the cottonwood, from the size of a man's finger to that of his arm.
Reprinted by permission of the American Studies Programs at the University of Virginia.
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