Lewis: June 15, 1806

Sunday June 15th 1806. We had some little difficulty in collecting our
horses this morning they had straggled off to a greater distance than
usual. it rained very hard in the morning and after collecting our horses
we waited for it to abait, but as it had every appearance of a settled
rain we set out at 10 A.M. we passed a little prarie at the distance of
81/2 me. to which we had previously sent R. Feilds and Willard. we found
two deer which they had killed and hung up. at the distance of 21/2 miles
further we arrived at Collins’s Creek where we found our hunters; they had
killed another deer, and had seen two large bear together the one black
and the other white. we halted at the creek, dined and graized our horses.
the rains have rendered the road very slippery insomuch that it is with
much difficulty our horses can get on several of them fell but sustained
no injury. after dinner we proceeded up the creek about 1/2 a mile,
passing it three times, thence through a high broken country to an
Easterly fork of the same creek about 101/2 miles and incamped near a
small prarie in the bottom land the fallen timber in addition to the
slippry roads made our march slow and extreemly laborious on our horses.
the country is exceedingly thickly timbered with long leafed pine, some
pitch pine, larch, white pine, white cedar or arborvita of large size, and
a variety of firs. the undergrowth principally reed root from 6 to 10 feet
high with all the other speceis enumerated the other day. the soil is
good; in some plaices it is of a red cast like our lands in Virginia about
the S. W. mountains. Saw the speckled woodpecker, bee martin and log cock
or large woodpecker. found the nest of a humming bird, it had just began
to lay its eggs.Came 22 Miles today.