Enclosure: Articles Sent from Fort Mandan, 7 April 1805
Enclosure: Articles Sent from Fort Mandan
Invoice of articles forwarded from Fort Mandan to the President of the United States through Captn. Stoddard at St. Louis and Mr. H. B. Trist the Collector of the Port of New Orleans.
| No. | Package | Contents | ||
| 1. | Box | Skins of the Male and female Antelope, with their Skeletons. came. P. | ||
| " | do | 2 Horns and ears, of the Black tail, or Mule Deer. came | ||
| " | " | A Martin Skin came containing the Skin of a weasel came. P. and three Small squirels of the Rocky Mountains & the tail of a Mule deer fully grown. came. | ||
| " | " | Skeleton of the Small, or burrowing wolf of the Praries, the Skin haveing been lost by accedent. some skeletons came, not distinguishable. sent to P. | ||
| " | " | 2 Skeletons of the White Hare. as above. P. | ||
| " | " | A Mandan bow with a quiver of arrows, came the quiver containing Some Seed of the Mandan tobacco. came | ||
| " | " | A carrot of Ricara tobacco. came | ||
| 2. | Box | 4 Buffalow robes, came and an ear1 of Mandan corn. | ||
| 3. | Box. | Skins of the Male and female Antelope, with their Skeletons undistinguishable. P and the Skin of a brown, or yellow Bear. | ||
| 4. | Box | Specimens of earths, Salts, and Minerals, numbered from 1. to 67. |  |
came A. Ph. Society |
| " | " | Specimens of plants numbered from 1. to 60. | came. | |
| " | " | 1 earthen pot, Such as the Mandans manufacture, and use for culinary purposes. came | ||
| " | " | 1. tin box containing insects, mice &c. | ||
| " | " | a Specimen of the fur of the Antilope. | ||
| " | " | a Specimen of a plant, and a parsel of its roots, highly prized by the natives as an efficatious remidy in the cure of the bite of the rattle snake, or Mad dog. | ||
| in a | Large Trunk | Skins of Male and female Braro, or burrowing Dog of the Praries, with the Skeleton of the female. came. P. | ||
| in a | large Trunk | 1 Skin of a red fox containing a Magpie. came. | ||
| 2 Cased Skins of the white hare. came. P. | ||||
| 1 Minetarre Buffalow robe, came containing some articles of Indian dress. came. | ||||
| 1 Mandan Buffalow robe, came containing a dressed Skin of the Lousirvea came and two cased Skins of the burrowing Squirels of the praries. came P. | ||||
| 13 red fox skins. came | ||||
| 4 horns of the mountain ram, or big horn.2 came. | ||||
| 1 Buffalow robe painted by a Mandan man representing a battle which was faught 8 years sence, by the Sioux & Ricaras, against the Mandans, Minetarras & Ahwahharways. came. | ||||
| 6 | Cage | Containing four liveing Magpies. 1. came P. | ||
| 7 | do. | Containing a liveing burrowing Squirel of the praries. came. P. | ||
| 9 | do. | Containing one liveing hen of the Prarie. | ||
| 10 | — | 1 large par of Elk’s horns connected by the frontal bone. | ||
MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 148:25876); undated; in William Clark’s hand; notations by TJ in italics.
Clark recorded a nearly identical list of the articles sent to TJ in his field notes under the date 3 Apr. (, 3:329-31). Many of the specimens sent by Lewis and Clark arrived, in varying condition, at the President’s House in August 1805 while TJ was at Monticello (Étienne Lemaire to TJ, 12 and 20 Aug.; Dearborn to TJ, 15 Aug.; TJ to Lemaire, 17 Aug.). Following his return to Washington in October, TJ inventoried what had arrived and began to disburse the items to appropriate specialists while awaiting the arrival of the remaining articles. He sent the skins, skeletons, and surviving live animals to Charles Willson Peale (noted in the list printed above as “P”). The mineral and plant specimens went to the American Philosophical Society, with a request that the seeds be sent to horticulturalist William Hamilton. TJ retained a number of the articles for himself, intending them for an “Indian Hall” he was planning for Monticello (, 1:239-40; Paul Russell Cutright, Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists [Urbana, Ill., 1969], 349-92; TJ to Peale, 6, 9, and 21 Oct.; TJ to Hamilton, 6 Nov.; John Vaughan to TJ, 21 Jan. 1806).
Martin: that is, a marten, a member of the weasel family (, 3:330, 331n).
burrowing wolf of the Praries: coyote (same, 3:87-8, 330; 4:112-13).
White Hare: white-tailed jackrabbit (same, 3:70, 73n, 330).
For an inventory of Lewis and Clark’s specimens of Minerals and plants received by the American Philosophical Society, see same, 3:462-78.
mice: Benjamin Smith Barton reported finding “two specimens of an extremely minute quadruped” in the box of plants sent by Lewis, which he identified as a shrew (Barton to TJ, 27 Dec. 1805).
Specimen of a plant: narrow leaf purple coneflower (see Description of a Plant by Meriwether Lewis, 5 Mch.).
Braro, or burrowing Dog of the Praries: badger, or blaireau in French (Moulton, Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, 2:429, 431n; 3:330; TJ to Peale, 6 Oct.).
Minetarre: another name for the Hidatsas (, 3:193-4n, 205-6n, 404-5).
Lousirvea: the lynx, or loup cervier in French (same, 256-7, 330; TJ to Peale, 9 Oct.).
burrowing Squirels of the praries: prairie dogs (, 3:54n, 330-1; Cutright, Lewis and Clark, 79-80; TJ to Peale, 6 Oct.).
The Awaxawi (Ahwahharways) were a division of the Hidatsas (, 3:193-4, 202, 403-4).
hen of the Prarie: sharp-tailed grouse (Cutright, Lewis and Clark, 375).
1. Preceding word underlined by Clark.
2. Preceding two words underlined by Clark.