Such Is The Extreme Voracity Of The Vultures,
That They Had Devoured In The Space Of A Few Hours Four
Of The Deer Killed This Morning; And One Of Our Men Declared
That They Had Besides Dragged A Large Buck About Thirty Yards,
Skinned It, And Broken The Backbone."
The vulture here referred to is better known as the California condor,
a great bird of prey which is now so nearly extinct that few specimens are
ever seen, and the eggs command a great price from those who make collections
of such objects.
A condor killed by one of the hunters of the Lewis and Clark
expedition measured nine feet and six inches from tip to tip of its wings,
three feet and ten inches from the point of the bill to the end of the tail,
and six inches and a half from the back of the head to the tip of the beak.
Very few of the condors of the Andes are much larger than this, though one
measuring eleven feet from tip to tip has been reported.
While camped at Quicksand, or Sandy River, the party
learned that food supplies up the Columbia were scarce.
The journal says that the Indians met here were descending
the river in search of food. It adds: -
"They told us, that they lived at the Great Rapids; but that
the scarcity of provisions there had induced them to come down,
in the hopes of finding subsistence in the more fertile valley.
All the people living at the Rapids, as well as the nations
above them, were in much distress for want of food, having consumed
their winter store of dried fish, and not expecting the return
of the salmon before the next full moon, which would be on the
second of May: this information was not a little embarrassing.
From the Falls to the Chopunnish nation, the plains afforded
neither deer, elk, nor antelope for our subsistence.
The horses were very poor at this season, and the dogs must
be in the same condition, if their food, the dried fish,
had failed. Still, it was obviously inexpedient for us to wait
for the return of the salmon, since in that case we might not reach
the Missouri before the ice would prevent our navigating it.
We might, besides, hazard the loss of our horses, as the Chopunnish,
with whom we had left them, would cross the mountains as early
as possible, or about the beginning of May, and take our horses
with them, or suffer them to disperse, in either of which cases
the passage of the mountains will be almost impracticable.
We therefore, after much deliberation, decided to remain where we
were till we could collect meat enough to last us till we
should reach the Chopunnish nation, and to obtain canoes from
the natives as we ascended, either in exchange for our pirogues,
or by purchasing them with skins and merchandise. These canoes,
again, we might exchange for horses with the natives of the plains,
till we should obtain enough to travel altogether by land.
On reaching the southeast branch of the Columbia, four or five men
could be sent on to the Chopunnish to have our horses in readiness;
and thus we should have a stock of horses sufficient both to transport
our baggage and supply us with food, as we now perceived that they
would form our only certain dependance for subsistence."
On the third of April this entry is made:
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