Basking in the warmth of the afternoon sun, Seaman is alerted to the approach of his master, Captain Meriwether Lewis. A rare day of above freezing temperatures has allowed Lewis and his roommate Captain William Clark the opportunity to open their door and air out their cramped quarters at Ft. Mandan. Seaman has taken advantage of the balmy conditions and has stretched out to doze, half in and half out of the open doorway. True to his Newfoundland breeding, Seaman was probably in his element during those long, cold winter months of 1804-1805. Not merely a pet, Seaman, like all the members of the expedition, had specific tasks that contributed to the success of the mission. An accomplished hunter, he frequently chased down, dispatched and retrieved game for the cookpot. A partial list of some of the game he was known to have killed and brought back includes squirrel, geese, beaver, antelope and even deer. There are a number of mentions of Seaman pursuing wounded deer into the river, drowning them and bringing them to shore. Only a dog of considerable size and tenacity could have managed such a feat of strength. His loyalty and enthusiasm are apparent by his constant patrols at night when they were deep in grizzly bear country. Lewis wrote on June 28, 1805, 'They (grizzly bears) come close around our camp every night but have never ventured to attack us and our dog gives us timely notice of their visits, he keeps constantly padroling all night.' This vigilant attitude brought with it some potentially annoying side effects as Lewis recorded '...my dog seems to be in a constant state of alarm with these bear and keeps barking all night.' Perhaps Seaman's most notable accomplishment occurred on the night of May 29, 1805 when a lone buffalo stampeded through the camp nearly stomping men as they lay on the ground. Lewis' journal passage of the day states '... still more alarmed, he now took his direction immediately towards our lodge, passing between 4 fires and within a few inches of the heads of one range of the men as they yet lay sleeping, when he came near the tent, my dog saved us by causing him to change his course a second time, which he did by turning a little to the right, and was quickly out of sight, leaving us by this time all in an uproar with our guns in or hands, enquiring of each other the case of the alarm, which after a few moments was explained by the centinel; we were happy to find no one hirt.' Each of the 'huts' at Fort Mandan had it's own fireplace constructed of selected native rock. This fireplace provided not only warmth, but much of the light for the captains as they worked on their scientific endeavors and entertained a steady flow of visitors from the nearby Mandan and Hidatsa villages. Anumber of artifacts and scientific curiosities representative of those collected by the two leaders are visible in this painting of the room. Just inside the doorway near Seaman's paws is a clay pot of traditional Hidatsa construction. The maker's fingers have formed clear, decorative grooves on the sides of the clay pot. Above the hearth is a rack of deer antlers joined by the remnants of it's skull. Along the back wall, which was adzed flat specifically for the captain's quarters, ha
