As wide as possible.
They were equally at a loss for wood of which they might make
handles for their axes, the eyes of which not being round,
they were obliged to split the timber in such a manner
that thirteen of the handles broke in the course of the day,
though made of the best wood they could find for the purpose,
which was the chokecherry.
"The rest of the party took the frame of the boat to pieces,
deposited it in a cache or hole, with a draught of the country
from Fort Mandan to this place, and also some other papers
and small articles of less importance."
High winds prevented the party from making rapid progress,
and notwithstanding the winds they were greatly troubled with mosquitoes.
Lest the reader should think the explorers too sensitive on the subject
of these troublesome pests, it should be said that only western travellers
can realize the numbers and venom of the mosquitoes of that region.
Early emigrants across the continent were so afflicted by these
insects that the air at times seemed full of gray clouds of them.
It was the custom of the wayfarers to build a "smudge," as it
was called, a low, smouldering fire of green boughs and brush,
the dense smoke from which (almost as annoying as the mosquitoes)
would drive off their persecutors as long, as the victims sat in the smoke.
The sleeping tent was usually cleared in this way before "turning in"
at night, every opening of the canvas being afterwards closed.
Captain Lewis, on the thirteenth of July, followed Captain Clark up
the river; crossing the stream to the north bank, with his six canoes
and all his baggage, he overtook the other party on the same day
and found them all engaged in boat-building.
"On his way he passed a very large Indian lodge, which was probably
designed as a great council-house; but it differed in its construction
from all that we had seen, lower down the Missouri or elsewhere.
The form of it was a circle two hundred and sixteen feet in circumference
at the base; it was composed of sixteen large cottonwood poles about
fifty feet long and at their thicker ends, which touched the ground,
about the size of a man's body. They were distributed at equal distances,
except that one was omitted to the cast, probably for the entrance.
From the circumference of this circle the poles converged toward the centre,
where they were united and secured by large withes of willow-brush. There
was no covering over this fabric, in the centre of which were the remains
of a large fire, and around it the marks of about eighty leathern lodges.
He also saw a number of turtle-doves, and some pigeons, of which he shot one,
differing in no respect from the wild pigeon of the United States.
. . . . . . . . .
The buffalo have not yet quite gone, for the hunters brought in three,
in very good order.
