There
was also a want of meat, for no buffalo were to be found; and though elk
are very abundant, yet their fat and flesh is more difficult to dry in
the sun, and is also much more easily spoiled than the meat or fat of
either deer or buffalo.
"Captain Clark therefore determined to go on to some spot which should
be free from mosquitoes and furnish more game. Having written a note to
Captain Lewis, to inform him of his intention, and stuck it on a pole
at the confluence of the two rivers, he loaded the canoes at five in the
afternoon, proceeded down the river to the second point, and camped on
a sand-bar; but here the mosquitoes seemed to be even more numerous
than above. The face of the Indian child was considerably puffed up
and swollen with their bites; the men could procure scarcely any sleep
during the night, and the insects continued to harass them next morning,
as they proceeded. On one occasion Captain Clark went on shore and
ascended a hill after one of the bighorns; but the mosquitoes were in
such multitudes that he could not keep them from the barrel of his rifle
long enough to take aim. About ten o'clock, however, a light breeze
sprung up from the northwest, and dispersed them in some degree. Captain
Clark then landed on a sand-bar, intending to wait for Captain Lewis,
and went out to hunt. But not finding any buffalo, he again proceeded in
the afternoon; and having killed a large white bear, camped under a high
bluff exposed to a light breeze from the southwest, which blew away the
mosquitoes.
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