August 10, 1806
Sunday August 10th 1806.
The morning was somewhat cloudy I therefore apprehended rain however it
shortly after became fair. I hastened the repairs which were necessary
to the perogue and canoe which were compleated by 2 P.M. those not
engaged about this business employed themselves as yester-day. at 4 in
the evening it clouded up and began to rain which puting a stop to the
opperation of skindressing we had nothing further to detain us, I
therefore directed the vessels to be loaded and at 5 P.M. got under way
the wind has blown very hard all day but did not prove so much so this
evening as absolutely to detain us. we decended this evening as low
nearly as the entrance of white Earth river and encamped on the S. W.
side. the musquetoes more than usually troublesome this evening.
Tuesday 10th August 1806
had the flesh of the elk hung on poles to dry, and Sent out the the
hunters. wind blew hard from the East all day. in the after part of the
day it was cloudy & a fiew drops of rain. I finished a Copy of my
Sketches of the River Rochejhone. Shields killed a black tail deer & an
antilope. the other hunters killed nothing. deer are very Scerce on
this part of the river. I found a Species of Cherry in the bottom the
Srub or bush which are differant from any which I have ever Seen and
not very abundant even in this Small tract of country to which it Seems
to be confined. the Stem is compound erect and subdivided or branching
without any regular order. it rises to the hight of 8 or 10 feet Seldom
putting out more than one Stem from the Same root not growing in cops
as the Choke Cherry does. the bark is Smooth and of a dark brown
colour. the leaf is petialate, oval accutely pointed at it's apex, from
1 and a 1/4 to one and a 1/2 inch in length and from a half to 3/4 of
an inch in wedth, finely or manutely Serrate, pale green and free from
bubessance. The fruit is a globular berry about the Size of a buck Shot
of a fine Scarlet red; like the cherries cultivated in the U. States
each is supported by a Seperate Celindric flexable branch peduncle
which issues from the extremities of the boughs. the peduncle of this
cherry Swells as it approaches the fruit being largest at the point of
insertion. the pulp of this fruit is of an agreeable ascid flavour and
is now ripe. the Style and Stigma are permanent. I have never Seen it
in blume. it is found on the high Stiff lands or hill Sides-. the men
dug great parcel of the root which the Nativs call Hankee and the
engagees the white apple which they boiled and made use of with their
meat. This is a large insipid root and very tasteless. the nativs use
this root after it is dry and pounded in their Seup.
