6/7 Lewis and Clark Stations Activities

Hi Class! Below are Stations 1, 2a, and 2b. Remember - station 3 and station 4 are website links (and yes, they work. Just keep double checking the URL if it says they don't exist). See you soon!


Station 1: Letter from President Jefferson
Lewis and Clark Expedition


Thomas Jefferson wrote the following letter to Meriwether Lewis. It is reproduced the actual way in which it was written. Therefore, any misspelling is the way that it originally appeared. Below you will find portions of the original letter.


To Meriwether Lewis, esquire, captain of the first regiment of infantry of the United States of America:


Paragraph 5


“The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river, may offer the most direct and practible water-communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce.”


Paragraph 6

“Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take observations of latitude and longitude, at all remarkable points on the river, and especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids, at islands, and other places and object distinguished by such natural marks and characters, of a durable kind, as that they may with certainty be recognised hereafter. The courses of the river between these points of observation may be supplied by the compass, the log-line, and by time, corrected by the observations themselves. The variations of the needle, too, in different places should be noticed.”


Paragraph 9

“The commerce which may be carried on with the people inhabiting the line you will pursue, renders a knowledge of those people important. You will therefore endeavour to make yourself acquainted, as far as a diligent pursuit of your journey shall admit, with the names of the nations and their numbers;

The extent and limits of their possessions;

Their relations with other tribes or natins;

Their language, traditions, monuments;

Their ordinary occupations in agriculture, fishing, hunting, war, arts, and the implements for these;

Their food, clothing, and domestic accommodations:

The diseases prevalent among them, and the remedies they use;

Moral and physical circumstances which distinguish them from the tribes we know;

Peculiarities in their laws, customs, and dispositions

And articles of commerce they may need or furnish, and to what extent.”



Paragraph 10


“And, considering the interest which every nation has in extending and strengthening the authority of reason and justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knowledge you can of the state of morality, religion, and information amoung them; as it may better enable those who may endeavour to civilize and instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions and practices of those on whom they are to operate.


Other objects worthy of notice will be;

The soil and face of the country, its growth and vegetable productions, especially

of those not in the United States;

The animals of the country generally, and especially those not known in the United States;

The remains and accounts of any which may be deemed rare or extinct;

The mineral productions of every kind, but more particularly metals, lime-stone, pit-coal, and saltpeter; salines and mineral waters, noting the temperature of the last, and such circumstances as may indicate their character;

Volcanic appearances;

Climate, as characterized by the thermometer, by the proportion of rainy, cloudy, and clear days; by lightning, hail, snow, ice; by the access and recess of frost; by the winds prevailing at different seasons; the dates at which particular plants put forth, or lose their flower or leaf; times of appearance of particular birds, reptiles, or insects.”




Station 2a: Supply List

Lewis and Clark Expedition


While still on the East Coast, Lewis accumulated almost two tons of goods using the $2,500 Congress had allocated for the expedition. The following is a partial list of the supplies that Lewis and Clark brought on their expedition.



Mathematical Instruments:

surveyor’s compass
hand compass
quadrants
telescope
thermometers
2 sextants (an instrument used to help
navigate using the night sky as a guide)

set of plotting instruments
chronometer (needed to calculate longitude)


Presents for Indians:
12 dozen pocket mirrors
4,600 sewing needles
144 small scissors
10 pounds of sewing thread
silk ribbons
ivory combs
handkerchiefs
yards of bright-colored cloth
130 rolls of tobacco
tomahawks that doubled as pipes
288 knives
8 brass kettles
vermilion face paint
33 pounds of tiny beads of assorted colors


Clothing:45 flannel shirts
coats
frocks
shoes
woolen pants
blankets
knapsacks
stockings



Medicine and Medical Supplies:

50 dozen Dr. Rush’s patented "Rush’s pills"
lancets
forceps
syringes
tourniquets
1,300 doses of physic
1,100 hundred doses of emetic
3,500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer)
other drugs for blistering, salivation and increased kidney output


Traveling Library:

Barton’s Elements of Botany
Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz’s History of Louisiana
Richard Kirwan’s Elements of Mineralogy
A Practical Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy
The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris
a four-volume dictionary
a two-volume edition of Linnaeus (the founder of the Latin classification of plants)
tables for finding longitude and latitude
map of the Great Bend of the Missouri River



Station 2b: Journals
Lewis and Clark Expedition


Lewis and Clark (as well as other members of their expedition) kept careful journals of plant, animal, and human life they encountered. Spelling was not standardized, so Lewis and Clark spelled words based on how they sounded.


Journal Excerpts:

“so penetrating is this sand that we cannot keep any article free from it; in short we are compelled to eat, drink, and breathe it very freely.” -Lewis, April 14, 1805


“Soar eyes is a common complaint among the party. I believe it originates from the immense quantities of sand which is driven by the wind from the sandbars of the river in such clouds that you are unable to discover the opposite bank of the river in many instances. -Lewis, April 24, 1805


“At length he informed me … below us he had shot a brown bear which immediately turned on him and pursued him a considerable distance but he had wounded it so badly that it could not overtake him. -Lewis, May 11, 1805


“These bear being so hard to die reather intimidates us all’ I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen and had reather fight two Indians than one bear.” -Lewis, May 11, 1805


“We came 18 miles and camped at a fork of the river, we could not determine which was the Missourie.” –Whitehouse, June 2, 1908







Journal 1 – William Clark, July 30, 1804

Joseph Filed Killed and brought in an Anamale Called by the French Brarow, and by the Ponies Cho car tooch this Anamale Burrows in the Ground and feed on Flesh, (Prarie Dogs), Bugs, & vigatables “his Shape & Size is like that of a Beaver, his head mouth &c. is like a Dogs with Short Ears, his Tail and Hair like that of a Ground Hog, and longer, and lighter…his Skin thick and loose, his Belly is White and the Hair Short – a white Streek from his nose to his Sholders. The toe nails of his fore feet is one Inch & __ long, & feet large; the nails of his hind feet _ of an Inch long, the hind feet Small and toes Crooked, his legs are Short and when he Moves Just Suffcent to raise his body above the Ground He is of the Bear Species.




Journal 2 – Meriwether Lewis, May 17, 1805

Capt. Clark norrowly escaped being bitten by a rattlesnake in the course of his walk, the party killed one this evening at our encampment, which he informed me was similar to that he had seen; this snake is smaller than those common to the middle Atlantic States, being about 2 feet 6 inches long; it is of a yellowish brown colour on the back and sides, variagated with one row of oval spots of a dark brown colour lying transversely over the back from the neck to the tail, and two other rows of small circular spots of the same colour which garnis the side along the edge of the scuta. it’s bely contains 176 scuta on the belly and 17 on the tale.


Journal 3 – Meriwether Lewis, February 23, 1806

The Sea Otter is found on the sea coast and in the salt water. this anamale when fully grown is as large as a common mastive dog. the ears and eyes are remarkably small, particularly the former which is not an inch in length thick where it joins the body and tapering to a very sharp point…the legs are remarkably short and the feet which have five toes each are broad large and webbed. the legs are covered with fur and the feet with short hair…from the extremity of the tail to that of the nose they will measure 5 feet or upwards.


Journal 4 – William Clark, February 25, 1806

I purchased of the Clatsops this morning about half a bushel of small fish…the rays of the fins are boney but not sharp tho’ somewhat pointed. the small fin on the back next to the tail has no rays of bone being a thin membranous pellicle…the puple of the eye is black and the iris of a silver white. the under jaw exceeds the upper; and the mouth opens to a great extent folding like that of a herring, shad, anchovy & c. of the Malacapterygious order and class clupea…the scales of this little fish are so small and thin that without manute inspection you would suppose they had none.