Fort Clatsop, Astoria, OR Lewis describes the elusive rodent presently named the mountain beaver. Three men head up the Columbia to fish or trade for sturgeon and eulachon. Others are sent out to hunt for elk.
Sturgeon and Eulachon
This morning we dispatched Drewyer and two men in our Indian canoe up the Columbia River to take sturgeon and Anchovey. or if they were unsuccessfull in fishing we directed them to purchase fish from the natives for which purpose we had furnished them with a few articles such as the natives are pleased with.
—Meriwether Lewis
Good Living
we hope shortly to replenish our stock of provision which is now reduced to a mere minnamum. we have th[r]ee days provision only in store and that of the most inferior dryed Elk a little tainted. a comfortable prospect for good living.
—Meriwether Lewis
Sewelel: Mountain Beaver
Mountain Beaver
Aplodontia rufa Rafinesque (1817)
Drawn from nature by John James Audubon; W. E. Hitchcock, lithographer; from Quadrapeds of North America (1845-48), Vol. III, No. 25, Plate CXXIII. Courtesy U.S. Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
Sewelel is the Chinnook and Clatsop name for a small animal found in the timbered country on this coast. I have never seen the animal and can therefore discribe it only from the skin and a slight view which some of our hunters have obtained of the living animal . . . . I have indeavoured in many instances to make the indians sensible how anxious I was to obtain one of these animals entire, without being skined, and offered them considerable rewards to furnish me with one, but have not been able to make them comprehend me.
—Meriwether Lewis
Braro: Badger
the Braro so called by the French engages [engagés] is an animal of the civit genus and much resembles the common badgers . . . . the head is formed much like the common fist [feist] dog only that the skull is more convex.
—Meriwether Lewis
Weather Diary
aspect of the weather at rise
Wind at aspect of the weather at 4 OC1 P.M. Wind at 4 O’Clock P.M. fair after rain N E cloudy after fair & rain S at 9 A. M. it clouded up again.
—Meriwether Lewis[1]To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “Day of ye Month” column and spelled out some abbreviations.
Fort Clatsop is a High Potential Historic Site along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The site is managed by the Lewis and Clark National and State Historic Parks.
Notes
| ↑1 | To assist the reader, the editor of this web page has omitted the “Day of ye Month” column 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).