Lewis: May 4, 1805

Saturday May 4th 1805. We were detained this morning untill about 9 OCk.
in order to repare the rudder irons of the red perogue which were broken
last evening in landing; we then set out, the wind hard against us. I
walked on shore this morning, the weather was more plesant, the snow has
disappeared; the frost seems to have effected the vegetation much less
than could have been expected the leaves of the cottonwood the grass the
box alder willow and the yellow flowering pea seem to be scarcely touched;
the rosebushes and honeysuckle seem to have sustaned the most considerable
injury. The country on both sides of the Missouri continues to be open
level fertile and beautifull as far as the eye can reach which from some
of the eminences is not short of 30 miles. the river bottoms are very
extensive and contain a much greater proportion of timber than usual; the
fore part of this day the river was bordered with timber on both sides, a
circumstance which is extreemly rare and the first which has occurred of
any thing like the same extent since we left the Mandans, in the after
part of the day we passed an extensive beautifull plain on the Stard. side
which gradually ascended from the river. I saw immence quantities of
buffaloe in every direction, also some Elk deer and goats; having an
abundance of meat on hand I passed them without firing on them; they are
extreemly gentle the bull buffaloe particularly will scarcely give way to
you. I passed several in the open plain within fifty paces, they viewed me
for a moment as something novel and then very unconcernedly continued to
feed. Capt. Clark walked on shore this evening and did not rejoin us
untill after dark, he struck the river several miles above our camp and
came down to us. we saw many beaver some which the party shot, we also
killed two deer today. much sign of the brown bear. passed several old
Indian hunting camps in the course of the day one of them contained two
large lodges which were fortifyed with old driftwood and fallen timber;
this fortification consisted of a circular fence of timber lade
horizontally laping on and over laying each other to the hight of 5 feet.
these pounds are sometimes built from 20 to 30 feet in diameter and
covered over with the trunks and limbs of old timber. the usual
construction of the lodges we have lately passed is as follows. three or
more strong sticks the thickness of a man’s leg or arm and about 12 feet
long are attatched together at one end by a with of small willows, these
are then set on end and spread at the base, forming a circle of ten twelve
or 14 feet in diameter; sticks of driftwood and fallen timber of
convenient size are now placed with one end on the ground and the other
resting against those which are secured together at top by the with and
which support and give the form to the whole, thus the sticks are laid on
untill they make it as thick as they design, usually about three ranges,
each piece breaking or filling up the interstice of the two beneath it,
the whole forming a connic figure about 10 feet high with a small
apperture in one side which answers as a door. leaves bark and straw are
sometimes thrown over the work to make it more complete, but at best it
affords a very imperfect shelter particularly without straw which is the
state in which we have most usually found them.

At noon the sun was so much obscured that I could not obtain his maridian
Altitude which I much wished in order to fix the latitude of the entrance
of Porcupine river. Joseph Fields was very sick today with the disentary
had a high fever I gave him a doze of Glauber salts, which operated very
well, in the evening his fever abated and I gave him 30 drops of laudnum.-