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Peek Inside...Entries For June 20:
1806:
Captain Clark (current)
Captain Clark:
June 20, 1806
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The hunters turned out early in different directions. Our giggers also turned out with two gigs, a bayonet fixed on a pole, a scooping net, and a snare made of horsehair. Near the ford of the creek, in a deep hole, we killed six salmon trout and two others were killed in the creek above in the evening. Reuben Fields killed a reddish brown bear, which was very meager. The talons of this bear were remarkably short, broad at their base and sharply pointed. This was the species the Chopunnish call yah-kar. As it was in very low order, the flesh was indifferent. Labiche and Cruzat returned late in the evening with one deer which the former had killed. The hunters assured us that their greatest exertions would not enable them to support us here more than one or two days longer, from the great scarcity of game and the difficult access of the country, the underbrush being very thick and great quantities of fallen timber.
As we shall necessarily be compelled to remain more than two days for the return of Drouilliard and Shannon, we determined to return in the morning as far as the quamash flats and endeavor to lay in another stock of meat for the mountains, our former stock now being nearly exhausted as well as what we have killed on our route. By returning to the quamash flats we shall sooner be informed whether or not we can procure a guide to conduct us through the mountains.
Reprinted by permission of the American Studies Programs at the University of Virginia.
The complete text can also be downloaded for printing from their website.
