Pelican Point, NE As they take the boats up the Missouri River, the expedition passes several islands and sandbars crowded with pelicans. Two are shot, and Lewis describes them. Camp is SSW of Blencoe, Iowa.
Too Many Snags
Set out this morning at the usial time at two miles passed a bend to L. S. Choaked up with Snags our boat run on two in turning to pass through, we got through with Safty
—William Clark
American White Pelican
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
Big Hole River. © 2013 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
A Froth of Feathers
I saw a great number of feathers floating down the river . . . . they appeared in such quantities as to cover pretty generally sixty or seventy yards of the breadth of the river. for three miles after I saw those feathers continuing to run in that manner, we did not percieve from whence they came, at length we were surprised by the appearance of a flock of Pillican at rest on a large sand bar
—Meriwether Lewis
American White Pelican
One of the hunters killed a [American white] pelican on a sand bar, and Captain Lewis killed another, very large. We encamped on the north bank. In a bag under the bill and neck of the pelican, which Captain Lewis killed, we put five gallons of water.
—Patrick Gass
Blinding Mosquitoes
The Misqutors were So troublesom and Misqutors thick in the Plains that I could not Keep them out of my eyes, with a bush.
—William Clark
