f Oregon Ornithology 



FIRST RECORDS BY LEWIS AND CLARK, 1805-06 



THE HISTORY of Oregon ornithology extends back one hundred and thirty- 

 four years to the time when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark win- 

 tered at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1805-06. Their journals, a 

 tale of hardships caused by a combination of stormy weather and hunger, 

 contain only incidental references to birds that can be surely identified as 

 Oregon records. A camp near the present site of Fort Vancouver was their 

 natural stopping place below the Cascades, as it was for most of the other 

 early visitors, and many of their scattered notes apply to Washington. 

 Travel in those days was no easy matter, and on reading the record of 

 their historic trip across the continent one marvels at the hardiness of the 

 men in enduring all sorts of discomforts and hardships. As they came 

 down the Columbia they were obliged to buy dogs and half-spoiled cured 

 fish from the Indians for food, often living for several days on such scanty 

 fare. After being forced to subsist on unappetizing fish for several succes- 

 sive meals, in fact, they came to regard dog meat as a delicacy. 



These men, fighting weather, rapids, and hunger, had little time to 

 write voluminous notes, and consequently many of their entries concern- 

 ing birds are vague both as to locality and species. The first reference 

 that seems to have a definite Oregon location was made on Saturday, 

 November 2., 1805. It refers to a camp 2.7 miles below the Cascades on 



the "left side of the river opposite the point of a large meadow 



We saw great numbers of water-fowl, such as swan, geese, ducks of various 

 kinds, gulls, plover and the white and gray brant, of which last we killed 

 eighteen." This "swan" might have been either the Trumpeter or 

 Whistling Swan, both of which wintered on the Columbia in the early 

 days; the "plover" was undoubtedly the Killdeer; and the "geese" were 

 without doubt the Lesser Snow Goose and the Lesser Canada Goose, the 

 latter form being the one that still frequents the river in numbers at that 

 season. 



No other mention of birds in the journals definitely referable to Oregon 

 was made until Saturday, November 30, 1805, when, after having been 

 soaked for days and having had their camp on the north bank of the 

 Columbia flooded several times by huge tides that piled up before south- 

 west gales, they crossed and made camp near Astoria. This crossing had 

 been delayed by heavy storms and mountainous seas on the bay. The 

 journal speaks several times of the dexterity of the Indians in handling 

 their dugouts and their fearlessness in crossing the bay at times when the 



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