West of present-day Snow Creek in eastern Montana, the expedition stops early to dry out articles made wet in yesterday’s white pirogue accident. They busy themselves dressing skins and hunting. Clark comments on the many dead bison encountered along this stretch of the Missouri River.
Brain-tanned Elk Hide
© 2012 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
The upper fold of this elk hide is the rough side, the result of being scraped by hand. The large hole is one of the holes used to stretch the hide taught during scraping. The white color is obtained by curing the scraped skin in animal brains followed by a thorough rinsing and drying. The process takes up to two weeks, so it is unlikely the hides being worked on 15 May 1805 were at the finished stage shown in the photo.
Drying Out
as soon as a slight shower of rain passed over this morning, we spread the articles to dry which had got wet yesterday in the white perogue; tho’ the day proved so cloudy and damp that they received but little benifit from the sun or air
—Meriwether Lewis
Drowned Bison
We see Buffalow on the banks dead, others floating down dead, and others mired every day, those buffalow either drown in Swiming the river or brake thro’ the ice
—William Clark
Dressing Skins
towards evening the hunters returned. had killed one buffaloe Seven deer and four beaver. the party dressed Skins.
—John Ordway
Weather Diary
State of thermometer at rise
Weather Wind at State of thermometer at 4 P. M. Weather Wind at 4 P. M. State of the river 48 [above 0] cloudy after rain S W 54 [above 0] cloudy N W fallen ¾ in. slight shower
—Meriwether Lewis[1]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “State of the river” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations.
Notes
| ↑1 | To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the date column, merged the “State of the river” columns, and spelled out some abbreviations. |
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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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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).