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Updated: June 4, 2025
it Continued to rain So constantly dureing the day that Sergt. Pryor Could not Pay his Canoes. The Clatsop Chief Commowool and the two Cath-lah-mahs left us this evening and returned to their village.
I first met with this bird above the three forks of the Missouri and saw them on the hights of the rocky Mountains but never before had an opportunity of examining them closely. the small corvus discribed at Fort Clatsop is a different speceis, tho untill now I had taken it to be the same, this is much larger and has a loud squawling note something like the mewing of a cat. the beak of this bird is 11/2 inches long, is proportionably large, black and of the form which characterizes this genus. the upper exceeds the under chap a little. the head and neck are also proportionably large. the eye full and reather prominent, the iris dark brown and puple black. it is about the size and somewhat the form of the Jaybird tho reather rounder or more full in the body. the tail is four and a half inches in length, composed of 12 feathers nearly of the same length. the head neck and body of this bird are of a dove colour. the wings are black except the extremities of six large fathers ocupying the middle joint of the wing which are white. the under disk of the wing is not of the shining or grossy black which marks it's upper surface. the two feathers in the center of the tail are black as are the two adjacent feathers for half their width the ballance are of a pure white. the feet and legs are black and imbricated with wide scales. the nails are black and remarkably long and sharp, also much curved. it has four toes on each foot of which one is in the rear and three in front. the toes are long particularly that in the rear. this bird feeds on the seed of the pine and also on insects. it resides in the rocky mountains at all seasons of the year, and in many parts is the only bird to be found. our hunters brought us a large hooting Owl which differs considerably from those of the Atlantic States which are also common here. the plumage of this owl is an uniform mixture of dark yellowish brown and white, in which the dark brown predominates. it's colour may be properly termed a dark iron grey. the plumage is very long and remarkably silky and soft. these have not the long feathers on the head which give it the appearance of ears or horns. the leathers of the head are long narrow and closely set, they rise upwright nearly to the extremity and then are bent back sudonly as iff curled. a kind of ruff of these feathers incircle the thoat. the head has a flat appearance being broadest before and behind and is 1 foot 10 Is. in circumference. incircling the eyes and extending from them like rays from the center a tissue of open hairy long feathers are placed of a light grey colour, these conceal the ears which are very large and are placed close to the eyes behind and extending below them. these feathers meet over the beak which they nearly conceal and form the face of the owl. they eyes are remarkably large and prominant, the iris of a pale goald colour and iris circular and of a deep sea green. the beak is short and wide at it's base. the upper chap is much curved at the extremity and comes down over and in front of the under chap. this bird is about the size of the largest hooting Owl. the tail is composed of eleven feathers, of which those in the center are reather the longest. it is booted to the extremity of the toes, of which it has four on each foot, one in the rear one on the outer side and two in front. the toes are short particularly that in rear, but are all armed with long keen curved nails of a dark brown colour. the beak is white and nostrils circular large and unconnected. the habits and the note of this owl is much that of the common large hooting owl.
Not any occurrence today worthy of notice; but all are pleased, that one month of the time which binds us to Fort Clatsop and which seperates us from our friends has now elapsed. one of the games of amusement and wrisk of the Indians of this neighbourhood like that of the Sosones consists in hiding in the hand some small article about the size of a bean; this they throw from one hand to the other with great dexterity accompanying their opperations with a particular song which seems to have been addapted to the game; when the individul who holds the peice has amused himself sufficiently by exchanging it from one hand to the other, he hold out his hands for his compettitors to guess which hand contains the peice; if they hit on the hand which contains the peice they win the wager otherwise loose. the individual who holds the peice is a kind of banker and plays for the time being against all the others in the room; when he has lost all the property which he has to venture, or thinks proper at any time, he transfers the peice to some other who then also becoms banker.
Half after 9 A.M. Colter arrived, having killed one Elk but so distant that we could not send for the meat and get arround Point William today, we therefore prefered seting out and depending on Drewyer and the hunters we have sent forward for meat. the wind is pretty high but it seems to be the common opinion that we can pass point William. we accordingly distributed the baggage and directed the canoes to be launched and loaded for our departure. at 1 P.M. we bid a final adieu to Fort Clatsop. we had not proceeded more than a mile before we met Delashelwilt and a party of 20 Chinnooks men and women. this Cheif leaning that we were in want of a canoe some days past, had brought us one for sale, but being already supplyed we did not purchase it.
Captain Clark was bitten on the hand by a wolf as he lay asleep; that was one bite among more than a hundred men while traveling through eight to nine thousand miles of savage wilderness. They could hardly have been so fortunate had they stayed at home. They wintered on the edge of the Clatsop plains, on the south side of the Columbia River near its mouth.
This morning sent out two parties of hunters, consisting of Collins and Willard whom we sent down the bay towards point Adams, and Labuish and Shannon whom we sent up Fort River; the fist by land and the latter by water. we were visited today by two Clatsop men and a woman who brought for sale some Sea Otter skins of which we purchased one, giving in exchange the remainder of our blue beads consisting of 6 fathoms and about the same quantity of small white beads and a knife. we also purchased a small quantity of train oil for a pair of Brass armbands and a hat for some fishinghooks. these hats are of their own manufactory and are composed of Cedar bark and bear grass interwoven with the fingers and ornimented with various colours and figures, they are nearly waterproof, light, and I am convinced are much more durable than either chip or straw.
I therefore gave the men a particular Charge with respect to them which they promised me to observe. late this evening we were also visited by Ca-tel a Clatsop man and his family. he brought a Canoe and a Sea Otter Skin for Sale neither of which we could purchase of him. the Clatsops which had brought a Canoe for Sale last evening left us this morning. Bratten is still very weak and unwell.
The party that were sent this morning up Netul river for the Elk returned in the even ing with three of them only; the Elk had been killed just before the snow fell which had covered them and so altered the apparent face of the country that the hunters could not find the Elk which they had killed. the river on which Fort Clatsop stands we now call Ne-tul, this being the name by which the Clatsops call it.
Fort Clatsop was evacuated on the afternoon of March 23, 1806. The goods left to trade for food and horses when Lewis and Clark departed from the coast inland had dwindled to what could have been tied in two handkerchiefs; but necessity proved the mother of invention, and the men cut the brass buttons from their tattered clothes and vended brass trinkets to the Indians.
Lapage is taken sick, gave him a doze of Scots pills which did not operate. no movement of the party today worthy of notice. every thing moves on in the old way and we are counting the days which seperate us from the 1st of April and which bind us to fort Clatsop. The large black and white pheasant is peculiar to that portion of the Rocky Mountain watered by the Columbia river. at least we did not see them in these mountains until I we reached the waters of that river nor since we have left those mountains. they are about the size of a well grown hen. the contour of the bird is much that of the redish brown pheasant common to our country. the tail is proportionably as long and is composed of eighteen feathers of equal length, of an uniform dark brown tiped with black. the feathers of the body are of a dark brown black and white. the black is that which most predominates, and white feathers are irregularly intermixed with those of the black and dark brown on every part, but in greater proportion about the neck breast and belley. this mixture gives it very much the appearance of that kind of dunghill fowl which the hen-wives of our country call dom-manicker. in the brest of some of these birds the white predominates most. they are not furnished with tufts of long feathers on the neck as our pheasants are, but have a space on each side of the neck about 21/2 inches long and 1 In. in width on which no feathers grow, tho tis concealed by the feathers which are inserted on the hinder and front part of the neck; this space seems to surve them to dilate or contract the feathers of the neck with more ease. the eye is dark, the beak black, curved somewhat pointed and the upper exceeds the under chap. they have a narrow stripe of vermillion colour above each eye which consists of a fleshey substance not protuberant but uneven with a number of minute rounded dots. it has four toes on each foot of which three are in front. it is booted to the toes. it feeds on wild fruits, particularly the berry of the sac-a-commis, and much also on the seed of the pine and fir.
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