June 10, 1805

On June 3, our expedtition team came to a fork in the river we were following. We either had to choose to go up the north fork, or the south fork. The Captains on the expedition believed the south fork would lead to the Missouri River, which in turn led to the Rockies; which the team hoped to cross before winter weather/snow came. Obviously, the rest of the team disagreed, saying the Northern fork was the correct way to go. Lewis and Clark knew that at this point, our team couldn't afford to make any mistakes, so they sent scouts up-river to see what was more up the way; this action brought no more information than they already had. So Lewis and three other men traveled up the Southern fork in search of the Great Falls, which the Mandan Indians said they would find when they found the Missouri River also. Lewis was only relying on the Indians' word and knowledge to get the rest of the expedition through to the next leg of the journey.
The very odd-looking Fragile Prickly-Pear flower is normally pink, but it's one of the lowest prickly flowers out there. Very strange to name a flower with "prickly" in its name, when it's not actually that "prickly"... Hmm... The team noted this flower on May 20, along the Musselshell River in Montana. On June 4, we noted the small McCown's Longspur near the Marias River in Chouteau County, Montana. I found the American (Pale) Goldfinch that I noted on June 8 also near the Marias River in Montana to be quite unique; its voice is something like 'per-chick-o-ree'. It rings out when the bird is flying or simply sitting/standing still.

I do hope Lewis has the correct fork of the river chosen to explore further; I would hate to lose those members of the expedition...
Keep Well,
George Gibson

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/record_species_060_8.html
The Goldfinch with the interesting voice that was attention-grabbing.