April 8, 1805

Greetings from the trail!
Yesterday was a stupendous day. Corporal Warfington and the French boatmen cast off for St. Louis in the keelboat, traveling easily with the current this time. The hold of the boat is full of seeds, soil samples, plants, pottery, fossils, insects, buffalo robes, as well as a live magpie, grouse, and a very irritable prairie dog. They also carry my maps of the rivers and lands we have traversed, as well as detailed notes on the Native Americans we have encountered. All of this will hopefully make its way to President Jefferson in good time. The rest of us will continue upstream in the two pirogues and six new dugout canoes. Our remaining party consists of thirty-three grimy, disheveled, and happy souls including a Shoshone woman, a black man, and Seaman, my dog. Ahead lies the unknown..
— William Clark