"At eleven o'clock we were visited by our neighbor, the Tia or chief,
Comowool, who is also called Coone, and six Clatsops. Besides roots
and berries, they brought for sale three dogs, and some fresh blubber.
Having been so long accustomed to live on the flesh of dogs, the greater
part of us have acquired a fondness for it, and our original aversion
for it is overcome, by reflecting that while we subsisted on that food
we were fatter, stronger, and in general enjoyed better health than at
any period since leaving the buffalo country, eastward of the mountains.
The blubber, which is esteemed by the Indians an excellent food,
has been obtained, they tell us, from their neighbors, the Killamucks,
a nation who live on the seacoast to the southeast, near one of whose
villages a whale had recently been thrown and foundered."
Five men had been sent out to form a camp on the seashore and go
into the manufacture of salt as expeditiously as possible.
On the fifth of January, two of them came into the fort
bringing a gallon of salt, which was decided to be "white, fine
and very good," and a very agreeable addition to their food,
which had been eaten perfectly fresh for some weeks past.
Captain Clark, however, said it was a "mere matter of indifference"
to him whether he had salt or not, but he hankered for bread.
Captain Lewis, on the other hand, said the lack of salt was
a great inconvenience; "the want of bread I consider trivial,"
was his dictum.
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