Fish and reptiles encountered by the Lewis and Clark Expedition include salmon, eulachon, turtles, and rattlesnakes.
Eulachon Eulogy?
A species in decline
by Adam Lewis
Eulachon have always played a critical role in the survival and commerce of First Nations, who give them important cultural status. The eulachon literally saved lives, earning them the name “salvation fish.”
Eulachon
Thaleichthys pacificus
by Joseph A. Mussulman
On 24 February 1806, Meriwether Lewis recorded that the Clatsop Indian chief, Coboway, came to the fort to sell some hats, some sturgeon, and “a species of small fish which now begin to run, and are taken in great quantities.”
Rattlesnakes
Crotalus sp.
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Lewis awoke to find “a large rattlesnake coiled on the leaning trunk of a tree under the shade of which I had been lying.” It certainly wasn’t the first rattlesnake seen on the trip, but he killed this one, and took time to study it.
Salmon
Four 'new' species
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark observed and described four fish belonging to the Salmonid family that were previously unknown to scientists, and that were basic foods for thousands upon thousands of Indians west of the Rockies.
Turtles
Reptiles of the order Testudines
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Lewis reported on 26 May 1805, that on a creek he saw “several softshelled Turtles which were the first that have been seen this season; this I believe proceeded reather from the season than from their nonexistence in the portion of the river from the Mandans hither.” He was probably correct.
Salmon Spirit and Sustenance
Salmon and His People
by Barbara Fifer
Salmon said, “When we come up the river we will die, so the human beings will have to catch us before that happens. I’ll come up only on certain times of the year and that’s when they’ll have to catch me.”
Westslope Cutthroat
Salmo clarkii
When Private Silas Goodrich caught half a dozen at the Falls of the Missouri, Lewis observed that these fish: “precisely resemble our mountain or speckled trout…but the specks on these are of a deep black instead of the red or goald colour of those common to the U.’ States.”
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
Discover More
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
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