The Journals of Lewis & Clark: Lewis, May 29, 1806

Updated May 14, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Lewis, May 29, 1806

Thursday May 29th 1806. No movement of the party today worthy of notice. we have once more a good stock of meat and roots. Bratton is recovering his strength very fast; the Child and the Indian Cheif are also on the recovery. the cheif has much more uce of his hands and arms. he washed his face himself today which he has been unable to do previously for more than twelvemonths. we would have repeated the sweat today had not been cloudy and frequently raining. a speceis of Lizzard called by the French engages prarie buffaloe are native of these plains as well as of those of the Missouri. I have called them the horned Lizzard. they are about the size and a good deel the figure of the common black lizzard. but their bellies are broader, the tail shorter and their action much slower; they crawl much like the toad. they are of brown colour with yellowish and yellowishbrown spots. it is covered with minute scales intermixed with little horny prosesses like blont prickles on the upper surface of the body. the belley and throat is more like the frog and are of a light yelowish brown colour. arround the edge of the belley is regularly set with little horney projections which give to those edges a serrate figure the eye is small and of a dark colour. above and behind the eyes there are several projections of the bone which being armed at their extremities with a firm black substance has the appearance of horns sprouting out from the head. this part has induced me to distinguish it by the apppellation of the horned Lizzard. I cannot conceive how the engages ever assimilated this animal with the buffaloe for there is not greater analogy than between the horse and the frog. this animal is found in greatest numbers in the sandy open parts of the plains, and appear in great abundance after a shower of rain; they are sometimes found basking in the sunshine but conceal themselves in little holes in the earth much the greater preportion of their time. they are numerous about the falls of the Missouri and in the plains through which we past lately above the Wallahwallahs.- The Choke Cherry has been in blume since the 20th inst. it is a simple branching ascending stem. the cortex smooth and of a dark brown with a redish cast. the leaf is scattered petiolate oval accute at its apex finely serrate smooth and of an ordinary green. from 11/2 to 3 inches in length and 13/4 to 2 in width. the peduncles are common, cilindric, and from 4 to 5 inches in length and are inserted promiscuously on the twigs of the preceeding years growth. on the lower portion of the common peduncle are frequently from 3 to 4 small leaves being the same in form as those last discribed. other peduncles 1/4 of an inch in length are thickly scattered and inserted on all sides of the common peduncle at wright angles with it each elivating a single flower, which has five obtuse short patent white petals with short claws inserted on the upper edge of the calyx. the calyx is a perianth including both stamens and germ, one leafed fine cleft entire simiglobular, infrior, deciduous. the stamens are upwards of twenty and are seated on the margin of the flower cup or what I have called the perianth. the filaments are unequal in length subulate inflected and superior membranous. the anthers are equal in number with the filaments, they are very short oblong & flat, naked and situated at the extremity of the filaments, is of a yelow colour as is also the pollen. one pistillum. the germen is ovate, smooth, superior, sessile, very small; the Style is very short, simple, erect, on the top of the germen, deciduous. the stigma is simple, flat very short.-