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| THE MONTH-LONG PORTAGE |
| June 29, 1805 -- Great Falls, Montana -- A tremendous hailstorm caught Clark, York, Sacagawea and Charbonneau in the open; a washout in the creekbed nearly drowned them, and Clark lost his fusil, compass, and a number of other articles. Men on the portage route, also caught in the open, reported being pelted with 7½" diameter hailstones which knocked them to the ground and wounded them badly. |
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| MICHAEL HAYNES http://www.mhaynesart.com |
| WILLIAM CLARK WITH THE CIRCUMFERENTOR |
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The painting depicts Clark at the Great Falls the morning of June 29, 1805 as he prepares to journey out along the river banks and rewrite some notes that had been lost.
Clark took with him his black man York and Charbonneau and his Indian woman [Sacagawea]. A torrential downpour hit the group and they sheltered under an overhanging rock in a ravine and were nearly swept away in the ensuing flash flood. Among other items, Clark lost "an elegant fusee" and a large compass or circumferentor in the flood. He wrote that "The compass is a serious loss, as we have no other large one." Returning the next day they were fortunate to recover the circumferentor from the muddy ravine. In the painting Clark is wrapping the circumferentor in a piece of cloth to protect it while in his haversack. The instrument was probably normally stored in a wooden case which would have been awkward to carry while in the field. Surveyors sometimes carried their instruments wrapped this way. The soon to be lost 'elegant fusee' leans against Clark's body |
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| REPLICA OF 18TH CENTURY CAMERA OBSCURA |
| There is no accounting for Lewis's use of "crimee" for camera; its Clarkian spelling is not even close to a phonetic rendering of the Italian word.
Thomas Jefferson purchased a camera obscura of his own in 1794, and Lewis may have seen his, or even used it. The machine was listed in Owen's Dictionary, the four-volume reference work that was part of the expedition's baggage, although the example described therein is not identical with either of the styles pictured above. Perhaps crimee was but the slip of a hasty pen. |
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| 19TH CENTURY CAMERA OBSCURA |
| In 1803, Lewis had designed a collapsible, iron frame boat. Building the frame proved to be quite a challenge.
On April 20, 1803, Lewis wrote President Jefferson: "My detention at Harper's Ferry was unavoidable for one month, a period much greater than could reasonably have been calculated on; my greatest difficulty was the frame of the canoe, which could not be completed without my personal attention to such portions of it as would enable the workmen to understand the design perfectly. My Rifles, Tomahawks & knives are already in a state of forwardness that leaves me little doubt of their being in readiness in due time." This iron frame was carried in pieces by the Corps for later assembly. The story below tells about the final construction of the boat near the Great Falls and its ultimate destiny. The boat has never been found, but it is assumed to be in the Great Falls, Montana area at the bottom of the Missouri River. On July 4, 1805, the members of the expedition celebrated the holiday by drinking the last of their whiskey rations. Sgt. Patrick Gass wrote in his journal on July 8, 1805, "We finished [stretching buffalo hides on] the boat this evening, having covered her with tallow and coal-dust. We called her the Experiment, and expect she will answer our purpose." Captain Lewis's iron-framed boat was launched on July 9. At first, he wrote: "we . . . launched the boat; she lay like a perfect cork on the water." But without pine pitch, or suitable tar, the buffalo hides soon failed to turn water. From Lewis's journal: " ... she leaked in such manner that she would not answer. I need not add that this circumstance mortifyed me not a little; ... therefore the evil was irraparable ... from these circumstances I am preswaided, that had I formed her with buffaloe skins singed not quite as close as I had done those I employed, that she would have answered even with this composition. but to make any further experiments in our present situation seemed to me madness; the buffaloe had principally d[e]serted us, and the season was now advancing fast. I therefore relinquished all further hope of my favorite boat and ordered her to be sunk in the water, that the skins might become soft in order the better to take her in peices tomorrow and deposited the iron fraim at this place as it could probably be of no further service to us. ... but it was now too late to introduce a remidy and I bid adieu to my boat, and her expected services." |
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| EXCERPT FROM THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE "One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion...We shall not realize our objectives, however, unless we are willing to help free peoples...against aggressive movements that seek to impose on them totalitarian regimes." (Written by Secretary of State George C. Marshall and delivered by President Harry S. Truman) |
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| Snow plowing on Going-To-The-Sun-Highway in Glacier National Park |
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| APPLES, PEACHES, PEARS, AND GRAPES |
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| Cambridge University Botanic Garden Location: Bateman Street, Cambridge, CB2 1JF Cambridgeshire, England | |
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| INDIAN SHOT | |
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| No. 16--FLOWER PAVILION, DANGO SLOPE, SENDAGI |
| The bank of symbolic "Genji clouds" across the middle of this print separates what appear as two different worlds, the one a lofty, mountainlike retreat and the other a level, familiar scene of cherry-viewing along a pond or river.
The scene above is one of deep, rich greens, with three small figures climbing through a craggy garden up to a bright pavilion, while below we see an aurora of lightness and pink, as visitors of all classes stroll among the cherries and rest on teahouse benches. |
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| EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND |
| GRAND TETON MOUNTAINS |
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| THE LUNCHEON |
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| DOEDICURUS Artwork by Joe Tucciarone |
| The now extinct Doedicurus lived during the Pleistocene epoch and was a member of the family Glyptodontidae. Unlike its modern cousin, the armadillo, Doedicurus was a giant creature more than a dozen feet long!
Name: Doedicurus Length: 13 feet Weight: up to 2 tons Time: 1.8 million to 11,000 years ago (Pleistocene epoch) Place: South America Diet: plant-eater (herbivore) |
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| DISCLAIMER: Material used in Bitts and Bytes is gathered from various sources--mainly the World Wide Web.
Authorship cannot always be credited nor the source defined. Authenticity of material is assumed to be correct, but is not guaranteed. |  |