The expedition spends most of the day at the mouth of the Gasconade River drying goods and waiting for Joseph Whitehouse to return from a hunting trip. At 5 pm, they travel three miles up the Missouri without the lost hunter. Lewis prepares a plant specimen of Golden Seal, Hydrastis canadensis.
Golden Seal
Hydrastis canadensis
Charles Frederick Millspaugh, American Medical Plants, 1887, plate 9.
Lost Hunter
had the Perogues [pirogues] loaded and all perpared to Set out at 4 oClock after finishing the observations & all things necessary found that one of the hunters had not returned, we deturmined to proceed on & leave one perogue to wate for him, accordingly at half past four we Set out and came on 4 miles & camped on the Lbd Side above a Small Creek Called Deer Creek, Soon after we came to we heard Several guns fire down the river, we answered them by a Discharge of a Swivile on the Bow [swivel gun]
—William Clark
Lost Specimen No. 8
No. 8. Was taken the 29th of May 1804 below the mouth of the Osage Rivr. this plant is known in Kentuckey and many other parts of this western country by the name of the yellow root— it is a sovereighn remidy for a disorder common in this quarter called the Soar eyes . . . . it makes an excellent mouth water, and a good outward applycation for wounds or inflamations of every kind.— native of rich bottom lands on the rivers——
—Meriwether Lewis
Moulton identifies this lost specimen, received by John Vaughn in 1805 (see The Donation Book), as Hydrastis canadensis, golden seal.[1]Gary E. Moulton, ed. Journals, “Fort Mandan Miscellany”, vol 3:453, 467.
Notes
| ↑1 | Gary E. Moulton, ed. Journals, “Fort Mandan Miscellany”, vol 3:453, 467. |
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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).