One valued member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition had four legs, webbed feet and weighed 150 pounds. He was Captain Meriwether Lewis' dog Seaman, a Newfoundland.
At Lewis' command, Seaman jumped into the Ohio River to catch squirrels swimming across in great numbers. Later, an Expedition hunter wounded a deer, which ran into the Missouri River. Seaman caught and drowned the deer and brought it to shore.
In present-day Montana, Seaman's skills as a watchdog saved lives when a grizzly bear stopped within 30 yards of the Expedition's campsite. "My dog seems to be in a constant state of alarm with these bears and keeps barking all night," Lewis wrote.
Most historians believe the dog returned to St. Louis with the rest of the Corps of Discovery in 1806. Otherwise, Lewis surely would have written in his journal about the loss of such a faithful companion.
For many years, scholars thought Lewis' dog was named "Scannon." Donald Jackson, a noted historian and native of Glenwood, Iowa, studied the handwriting of Expedition journals and determined the correct spelling, "Seaman."
—————————
Artwork by Patricia Reeder Eubank courtesy of "Seaman's Journal: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark." Used by permission of Ideals Publications.
? 2004 Big Muddy Workshop Inc.
Comments 0 comments