Lewis and Clark Reading Center
Directions:
1. Pick one of William Clark's journal entries to read closely
2. Read the piece 2 times if time permits.
3. Discuss any tricky words with your partner.
4. Ask yourself:
5, Respond in your notebook, answering one of the questions above.
2. Read the piece 2 times if time permits.
3. Discuss any tricky words with your partner.
4. Ask yourself:
- What does this journal entry tell us about the expedition?
- Why do you think Clark wrote each day on the trail?
5, Respond in your notebook, answering one of the questions above.
William Clark's Journal Entries
Sunday, May 5, 1805
"In the evening we saw a Brown or Grisley beare on a sand beech, I went out with one man Geo Drewyer & Killed the bear, which was verry large and a turrible looking animal, which we found verry hard to kill we Shot ten Balls into him before we killed him, & 5 of those Balls through his lights This animal is the largest of the carnivorous kind I ever saw we had nothing that could way him, I think his weight may be stated at 500 pounds [227 kilograms].... we had him skined and divided, the oile tried up & put in Kegs for use."
Sunday, May 26, 1805
"I took one man and walked out this morning, and ascended the high countrey to view the mountains which I thought I saw yesterday.... from this point I beheld the Rocky Mountains for the first time with certainty.... whilst I viewed those mountains I felt a secret pleasure in finding myself so near the head of the heretofore conceived boundless Missouri; but when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowey barrier would most probably throw in my way to the Pacific Ocean, and the sufferings and hardships of my self and party in them, it in some measure counterballanced the joy I had felt in the first moments in which I gazed on them."
Wednesday, October 2, 1805
"We have nothing to eate but roots, which give the men violent pains in they bowels after eating much of them… I walked out with me gun on the hills which is verry steep & high, could kill nothing… Provisions all out, which compels us to kill one of our horses to eate (and make Suep for the Sick men)."
10 November 1805
Rained very hard the greater part of last night and continues this morning. The wind has lulled and the waves are not high. We loaded our canoes and proceeded on. Passed several small and deep niches on the starboard side. We proceeded on about 10 miles; saw great numbers of sea gulls. The wind rose from the N.W., and the waves became so high that we were compelled to return about 2 miles to a place we could unload our canoes, which we did in a small niche at the mouth of a small run, on a pile of drift logs, where we continued until low water. When the river appeared calm, we loaded and set out, but were obliged to return, finding the waves too high for our canoes to ride. We again unloaded the canoes and stowed the loading on a rock above the tidewater, and formed a camp on the drift logs which appeared to be the only situation we could find to lee-the hills being either a perpendicular cliff or steep ascent, rising to about 500 feet. Our canoes we secured as well as we could. We are all wet, the rain having continued all day- our bedding and many other articles. Employ ourselves drying our blankets. Nothing to eat but dried fish, pounded, which we brought from the Falls. We made 10 miles today.
12 November 1805
Our situation is dangerous. We took the advantage of a low tide and moved our camp around a point to a small wet bottom, at the mouth of a brook, which we had not observed when we came to this cove, from its being very thick and obscured by drift trees and thick bushes. It would be distressing to see our situation-all wet and cold, our bedding also wet (and the robes of the party which compose half the bedding are rotten, and we are not in a situation to supply their places), in a wet bottom scarcely large enough to contain us, our baggage half a mile from us, and canoes at the mercy of the waves, although secured as well as possible-sunk, with immense parcels of stone to weight them down to prevent their dashing to pieces against the rocks. One got loose last night and was left on a rock a short distance below, without receiving more damage than a split in her bottom. Fortunately for us, our men are healthy.
9 December 1805
I set out in a westerly direction, crossed 3 slashes, and arrived at a creek. Met 3 Indians loaded with fresh salmon. Those Indians made signs that they had a town on the seacoast at no great distance, and invited me to go to their town. They had a canoe hid in the creek; we crossed in this little canoe. After crossing, 2 of the Indians took the canoe on their shoulders and carried it across to the other creek, about 1/4 of a mile. We crossed the 2nd creek and proceeded on to the mouth of the creek, which makes a great bend. Above the mouth of this creek, or to the south, are 3 houses and about 12 families of the Clatsop nation. We crossed to those houses.
Those people treated me with extraordinary friendship. One man attached himself to me as soon as I entered the hut, spread down new mats for me to sit on, gave me fish, berries, roots, etc. All the men of the other houses came and smoked with me. In the evening an old woman presented in a bowl made of a light-colored horn, a kind of syrup made of dried berries which the natives call shale-well. They gave me a kind of soup made of bread of the shale-well berries mixed with roots, which they presented in neat trenchers made of wood.
When I was disposed to go to sleep, the man who had been most attentive, named Cuscalah, produced 2 new mats and spread them near the fire, and directed his wife to go to his bed, which was the signal for all to retire. I had not been long on my mats before I was attacked most violently by the fleas, and they kept up a close siege during the night.