The Journals of Lewis & Clark: Lewis, June 15, 1806

Updated May 14, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Lewis, June 15, 1806

Sunday June 15th 1806. We had some little difficulty in collecting our horses this morning they had straggled off to a greater distance than usual. it rained very hard in the morning and after collecting our horses we waited for it to abait, but as it had every appearance of a settled rain we set out at 10 A.M. we passed a little prarie at the distance of 81/2 me. to which we had previously sent R. Feilds and Willard. we found two deer which they had killed and hung up. at the distance of 21/2 miles further we arrived at Collins's Creek where we found our hunters; they had killed another deer, and had seen two large bear together the one black and the other white . we halted at the creek, dined and graized our horses. the rains have rendered the road very slippery insomuch that it is with much difficulty our horses can get on several of them fell but sustained no injury. after dinner we proceeded up the creek about 1/2 a mile, passing it three times, thence through a high broken country to an Easterly fork of the same creek about 101/2 miles and incamped near a small prarie in the bottom land the fallen timber in addition to the slippry roads made our march slow and extreemly laborious on our horses. the country is exceedingly thickly timbered with long leafed pine, some pitch pine, larch, white pine, white cedar or arborvita of large size, and a variety of firs. the undergrowth principally reed root from 6 to 10 feet high with all the other speceis enumerated the other day. the soil is good; in some plaices it is of a red cast like our lands in Virginia about the S. W. mountains. Saw the speckled woodpecker, bee martin and log cock or large woodpecker. found the nest of a humming bird, it had just began to lay its eggs.- Came 22 Miles today.