Day-by-Day / September 23, 1803

September 23, 1803

Dangerous riffles

On or near this date, Lewis travels in the area between present Portsmouth, Ohio and Maysville, Kentucky.[1]Because we have no journal entry from Lewis for this day, his exact location is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas … Continue reading Contemporary traveler Thomas Rodney describes the Ohio River rapids, high hills, and river carpsuckers in this area.

Floating Down the River

From an old print

Painting of a flatboat and hills on the Ohio River

From On the Trail of the Pioneers, John T. Faris, 1920.[2]Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County. On the Trail of the Pioneers by John T. Faris (1955), 17.

More Danger

Just time enough to pass over a dangerous riffle before us. The best channel was on the Kentucky shore but we followed Wood and crossed short over the middle of the riffle in the middle of the river. They rubbed hard and we just touched as we passed over.
—Thomas Rodney[3]1 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 92.

 

River Carpsucker

Carpiodes carpio

Scientific illustration of a fish with a humped back

Duane Raver, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Ohio Sucker

Wood gave us an Ohio sucker which we had for diner boiled and butter with it and found it a good fish. It was remarkably fat. Before cooking we took near at [a] pint tin cup of leaf fat out of it which lay all along its back interior. It would have weighed as we suppose about six pounds. It was in shape or form like a fatback and in color like a yellow perch. It lives by suction on muscles, etc.
—Thomas Rodney[4]Ibid., 93.

Rodney likely dined on the River carpsucker, Carpiodes carpio, described by Constantine Rafinesque in 1820. Rafinesque gives its range as, “Ohio Valley; southwest to central Texas, generally abundant, apparently a valid species but variable, and its synonymy uncertain. Perhaps more than one species is here included.”[5]David S. Jordan and Barton W. Everman, The Fishes of North and Middle America: A descriptive catalogue of the species of fish-like vertebrates found in the waters of North America, north of the … Continue reading As the fish matures, its transparent fins can become dark yellow. We do know Lewis enjoyed fishing and tasting new varieties, but we do not know if he examined or ate this fish while traveling through the area.

Related: Fish and Reptiles | Fishing on the Expedition

The Hills Resume

[T]he mountains have appeared on both shores for two days past, and thereby spoiled our wind so that we have had but little sailing.
—Thomas Rodney[6]Ibid.

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Because we have no journal entry from Lewis for this day, his exact location is unknown. He was at Letart Falls on 18 September and arrived in Cincinnati on 28 September. Based on Thomas Rodney’s journal of his similar trip down the Ohio and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator, one conjecture is that Lewis stopped for the day before or at Maysville. Maysville would have been a good place for Lewis to spend a day and extra night.
↑2 Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County. On the Trail of the Pioneers by John T. Faris (1955), 17.
↑3 1 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 92.
↑4 Ibid., 93.
↑5 David S. Jordan and Barton W. Everman, The Fishes of North and Middle America: A descriptive catalogue of the species of fish-like vertebrates found in the waters of North America, north of the Isthmus of Panama (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1896), 166.
↑6 Ibid.

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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).