On the expedition’s final day encamped at the mouth of the Ohio, Clark completes his survey of that river’s confluence with the Mississippi, and Lewis makes celestial observations.
Mouth of the Ohio
View north, from Fort Defiance
© 2022 by Robert Heacock. Used by permission.
Clark’s Survey
at the mouth of the Ohio we delayed five Days in which time I made a Complete Survey of the place . . . .
—William Clark[1]James J. Holmberg, ed. Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 60.
Lewis’s Celestial Observations
Took equal altitudes . . . .
Altitude Art. Horzn. & Sectns. 41° 26′ 37″ Sextant Error 8′ 45″—
Altitude given by sextant
‘s center 39° 50’ 00″
Equal altitudes corrected
Chronometer too slow
—Meriwether Lewis
Notes
| ↑1 | James J. Holmberg, ed. Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 60. |
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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 National Historic Trail
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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).