Always finding gaps in my knowledge

[Ozarkwoodswalker]

I'm always finding some little gap in my knowledge base.. may just be an odd snippet that somehow I had managed to never know... until I stumble on it....we never pick it all up....
I recently read a book about the Louis and Clark expedition... and somehow until now I never knew that Lewis committed suicide later after the expedition....( ok, there was some discussion that he might have been killed but it seems Clark believed that Lewis coming suicide so I expect he did... so now. I finally know,( quite possible most of the rest of the world has known that forever... thats how gaps in a person's knowledge usually work. Oh well...

Like this old saying.... I had never heard the last line until my son pointed out to me that this is how the entire quote actually goes, ( I never in my life heard the last bit. Though it makes perfect sense.)

A jack of all trades and master of none,
THOUGH OFTENTIMES BETTER THAN A MASTER OF ONE.

[GFK]

I agree; it is good to have a working knowledge of various things than a superior knowledge about a single thing. At least, you may have an opportunity to overcome most things in life, and not be left at the mercy of others. Sadly, working together seems to be a thing of the past.

[cooperhawk]

Living in Missouri you may already have been there but there is a museum just south of St. Charles
that is all about the expedition. The thing that really interested me was a full scale model of the
boat they used. It's cut away showing all the storage below deck. That boat was huge!

http://www.lewisandclarkboathouse.org

Also they had a semi automatic air rifle with them.

[North Country Gal]

Good for you. Life would get boring real fast if I wasn't constantly learning new things.

[Ernie]

What brand of air rifle?

[cooperhawk]

What brand of air rifle?

You know I don't know, but I've seen drawings of it. If I understand it correctly you pumped up
the tank which was also the stock and it was good for several firings. I read that they used it to
kill deer for meat.

[cooperhawk]

Here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI

[GFK]

Here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pqFyKh-rUI

Interesting! Thanks!

[GeoBoy]

Very interesting video.

[BigAl52]

Thanks Coop that was interesting for sure. I just closed another hole in what little knowledge I have.

[cooperhawk]

I wonder who got the job to pump that thing up. 1200 strokes of the pump.

[Ozarkwoodswalker]

I actually read that they killed a bear with it...powerful airgun..

[cooperhawk]

The last time the air gun made the journals was Monday, 11 August 1806, the day Cruzatte mistook the buckskin-clad Lewis for an elk and shot him in the buttocks.12 Immediately suspecting a hostile Indian attack, Lewis hobbled back to the white perogue and, he wrote, "prepared my self with a pistol my rifle and airgun being determined as a retreat was impracticable to sell my life as deerly as possible." At last, he was prepared to use the weapon for the main purpose it may originally have been designed to serve not merely for show, nor for hunting, but for man-to-man combat. It was a false alarm, of course. Lewis documented the incident in detail, conceding at last, "I do not beleive that the fellow did it intentionally."

http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/1827

[Ernie]

Thanks for the information. Very interesting.