On this day in Lewis & Clark history...
While wintering at Fort Clatsop near Astoria, Oregon, the Captains fret about the rapid consumption of their Elk. Lewis adds ferns, Salal, Oregon moss, and Red huckleberry to the herbarium.
From the journals...
The Shallon; Supposed to be a Species of Vaccinium. On the Coast of the Pacific Ocean. Jan: 20th 1806
Salal, Gaultheria shallon
Tuesday [Monday] January 20th 1806.
Visited this morning by three Clatsops who remained with us all day; the object of their visit is mearly to smoke the pipe.
we have latterly ... had our stock of provisions reduced to a minimum and sometimes taken a small touch of fasting...
Empty kettles
Tuesday [Monday] January 20th 1806.
The native roots which furnish a considerable proportion of the subsistence of the indians in our neighbourhood are those of a species of Thistle, fern, and rush
Cattail and thistle roots
Monday 20th.
I saw some amazingly large trees of the fir kind; they are from 12 to 15 feet in diameter.
Sitka spruce, Picea sitchensis
Fort Clatsop. Jan: 20th 1806.
Deer fern, Blechnum spicant
Polypodium Species. Fort Clatsop Jan: 20th 1806.
Mountain wood fern, Dryopteris carthusiana
Hypnum A Species of moss from Fort Clatsop. Jan: 20th 1806
Oregon moss, Hypnum oreganum on a Red Alder
New Species. With a purple Small berry eatable, an evergreen Fort Clatsop Jan 20th 1806.
Red huckleberry, Vaccinium parvifolium
Monday 20th.
It rained hard all day.