Main Event Salted: Part III

Because books, whether print or electronic, matter is why I continue with the Lewis and Clark Expedition story, born of Thomas Jefferson’s mind and library. The diet of the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Corps of Discovery consisted of a great deal of game meat. The narrative of the Expedition, as told by Elliot Coues in three day-by-day journal volumes (see below), leaves the reader with a clear impression concerning the very high importance of game to the sustenance of the Corps. Flour, portable soup, pork, parched meal and dried apples carried from the east were kept in reserve as much as possible. In periods of game scarcity west of the Continental Divide, the explorers ate root and fish substitutes obtained by trade from the Indians; there were unpleasant bodily consequen…