The value of having a person with keen powers of observation on expeditions is borne out by the diaries of Edward Harris. In accompanying John J. Audubon on his trip up the Missouri to the Yellowstone River, he made many observations which correct those of Lewis and Clark. In particular he noted the topography, the daily weather, the animals, plants and natives. His observations on the geology of the area are of interest as well.
In particular I find it helpful that Harris noted some of the same characteristics of the area as both Lewis and Clark but he correctly understood and recorded. As example, Lewis and Clark visited an area in Nebraska, not too far across the Missouri from Vermillion, South Dakota. The area was said to be an active volcano, in the LC Journals, based on their observations that smoke came from the ground and the ground was hot. Current interpertations of the LC recordings attribute the heat to oxidation of minerals in the area as they were hydrated. Now, Harris says in his journal, "... For several days before reaching the Bend I observed overlying the regularly stratified rocks frequent outcroppings of what I take to be marl or soft limestome in their laminae intermixed with a blackish shale which has a glazed and burnt appearance, and hills around the Bend contain a great deal of this substance the nature of which I am unable to determine, it appears to discompose (sic) and from (sic) a soil extremely retentive of water and so adhesive and slippery that it is exceedingly difficult to climb the hills of which it is composed, these hills are subject to continual landslides. The Hunters say that this soil continues wet throughout the longest drought of summer. This formation contains allum, magnesia and sulphur? and one or two of the knolls of the Bank of the River below the Bend, we were assured by Captain Sire and the Pilot was in a state of ignition for two years, during which time smoke constantly issued by no flame..." Where the Lewis and Clark lake is formed behind Gavin's Point Dam, one can see the topography described by Harris. The area is underlain with shale and what early settlers called chalk rock which was used in building. The fort at Fort Randall was built of this soft stone which has almost completely disintergrated over the years.
In another instance, when the expedition was passing the area where the Vermillion river exits to the Missouri, Harris drew a crude map of the first major ox-bow in the river which he saw. We know know that he must have been standing on the Nebraska bluffs looking toward what is now Vermillion, South Dakota. Today, the ox-bow doesn't exist. In the flood of 1881, the river cut through the narrow neck, straightening its flow and rendering Vermillion a distance from the river. Up until that time, it is recorded by Herbert Schell in his book, Clay County; Chapters Out of the Past, "Vermillion lay in a unique position with respect to the Missouri. It was situated on the North at the apex of a peninsula shaped in an elongated oxbow. The distance across the neck on the south was half a mile; around the penisula it measured about fourteen miles. To put it more graphically, a visitor in a boat from North Bend on the Nebraska side could come to Vermillion by simply floating downstream northward to the town and then continue downstream on the return to end up within a half mile from the starting point."
Harris was not about to let other's observations go unchallenged. In one instance of which I am aware, he said of a Cornus plant, "...the bark of which is smoked by the Indians instead of tobacco, and which Catlin rather stupidly calls a Willow." Well as it turns out, Catlin was right and Harris wrong, the plant Cornus sericea is called the swamp dogwood, rose willow or red willow, and its principal usage was as a tonic and astringent, not as a tobacco substitute. Edward Sullivan wrote, of the red willow, "They do not smoke the tobacco pure, but mix one part with three of the dried bark of the red willow, called knnnikinnik, which as a pleasing taste and aroma, but is rather hot to the mouth". As Harris points out frequently in his writing, you have to be very distrustful of what is related to you as facts and trust your own powers of observation. In addition, Elizabeth Custer, wife of General George Custer, had this to say about killikinick (aka, kinnikinnik), which is the indian word for "mixture", "Their tobacco is killlikinik, prepared by drying the bark of the ozier and mixing it with sumach (pp 212, Boots and Saddles). Ozier (osier) is a variety of red willow which was much used for wickerwork. Makes sense that the Indians would look for other uses for the bark which was stripped off the stems in preparation for weaving them into useful items.
Further in describing the gear taken along he list an "indian rubber composition to mend beds &c. Apply it with a brush around the rent and on the inside of the patch, leave it abt an hour to become somewhat stiff, renew the application 4 or 5 times in the same way before the patch is applied to the rent. (The beds were air-matresses that were blown up and upon which the traveler bedded down. " ...Our beds were soon blown up and wrapped in our blankets with our guns at our sides, we were soon fast asleep." pp 74.
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