Lewis: January 29, 1806

Thursday January 29th 1806. Nothing worthy of notice occurred today. our
fare is the flesh of lean elk boiled with pure water, and a little salt.
the whale blubber which we have used very sparingly is now exhausted. on
this food I do not feel strong, but enjoy the most perfect health;a
keen appetite supplys in a great degree the want of more luxurious sauses
or dishes, and still render my ordinary meals not uninteresting to me, for
I find myself sometimes enquiring of the cook whether dinner or breakfast
is ready.-

The Sac a commis is the growth of high dry situations, and invariably in a
piney country or on it’s borders. it is generally found in the open piney
woodland as on the Western side of the Rocky mountain but in this
neighbourhood we find it only in the praries or on their borders in the
more open wood lands; a very rich soil is not absolutely necessary, as a
meager one frequently produces it abundantly. the natives on this side of
the Rockey mountains who can procure this berry invariably use it; to me
it is a very tasteless and insippid fruit. this shrub is an evergreen, the
leaves retain their virdure most perfectly through the winter even in the
most rigid climate as on lake Winnipic. the root of this shrub puts forth
a great number of stems which seperate near the surface of the ground;
each stem from the size of a small quill to that of a man’s finger; these
are much branched the branches forming an accute angle with the stem, and
all more poperly pocumbent than creeping, for altho it sometimes puts
forth radicles from the stem and branches which strike obliquely into the
ground, these radicles are by no means general, equable in their distances
from each other nor do they appear to be calculated to furnish nutriment
to the plant but reather to hold the stem or branch in it’s place. the
bark is formed of several thin layers of a smoth thin brittle substance of
a dark or redish brown colour easily seperated from the woody stem in
flakes. the leaves with rispect to their position are scatered yet closely
arranged near the extremities of the twigs particularly. the leaf is about
3/4 of an inch in length and about half that in width, is oval but
obtusely pointed, absolutely entire, thick, smoth, firm, a deep green and
slightly grooved. the leaf is supported by a small footstalk of
proportionable length. the berry is attatched in an irregular and
scattered manner to the small boughs among the leaves, tho frequently
closely arranged, but always supported by seperate short and small
peduncles, the insertion of which poduces a slight concavity in the bury
while it’s opposite side is slightly convex; the form of the berry is a
spheroid; the shorter diameter being in a line with the peduncle.this
berry is a pericarp the outer coat of which is a thin firm tough pellicle,
the inner part consists of a dry mealy powder of a yellowish white colour
invelloping from four to six proportionably large hard light brown seeds
each in the form of a section of a spheroid which figure they form when
united, and are destitute of any membranous covering.the colour of
this fruit is a fine scarlet. the natives usually eat them without any
preperation. the fruit ripens in september and remains on the bushes all
winter. the frost appears to take no effect on it. these berries are
sometimes geathered and hung in their lodges in bags where they dry
without further trouble, for in their most succulent state they appear to
be almost as dry as flour.