A Canoe Of Eight Indians, Who Were Carrying
Down Wappatoo-Roots To Trade With The Clatsops, Stopped At Our Camp;
We bought a few roots for small fish-hooks, and they then left us.
Accustomed as we were to the
Sight, we could not but view
with admiration the wonderful dexterity with which they guide
their canoes over the most boisterous seas; for though the waves
were so high that before they had gone half a mile the canoe
was several times out of sight, they proceeded with the greatest
calmness and security. Two of the hunters who set out yesterday
had lost their way, and did not return till this evening.
They had seen in their ramble great signs of elk and had killed six,
which they had butchered and left at a great distance.
A party was sent in the morning."
On the third of December Captain Clark carved on the trunk of a great pine
tree this inscription: -
"WM. CLARK DECEMBER 3D 1805 BY LAND FROM THE
U. STATES IN 1804 & 5."
A few days later, Captain Lewis took with him a small party and set
out to find a suitable spot on which to build their winter camp.
He did not return as soon as he was expected, and considerable
uneasiness was felt in camp on that account. But he came in safely.
He brought good news; they had discovered a river on the south side
of the Columbia, not far from their present encampment, where there
were an abundance of elk and a favorable place for a winter camp.
Bad weather detained them until the seventh of December, when a
favorable change enabled them to proceed. They made their way slowly
and very cautiously down-stream, the tide being against them.
The narrative proceeds: -
"We at length turned a point, and found ourselves in a deep bay:
here we landed for breakfast, and were joined by the party sent out
three days ago to look for the six elk, killed by the Lewis party.
They had lost their way for a day and a half, and when they
at last reached the place, found the elk so much spoiled
that they brought away nothing but the skins of four of them.
After breakfast we coasted round the bay, which is about four
miles across, and receives, besides several small creeks, two rivers,
called by the Indians, the one Kilhowanakel, the other Netul. We named
it Meriwether's Bay, from the Christian name of Captain Lewis,
who was, no doubt, the first white man who had surveyed it.
The wind was high from the northeast, and in the middle
of the day it rained for two hours, and then cleared off.
On reaching the south side of the bay we ascended the Netul
three miles, to the first point of high land on its western bank,
and formed our camp in a thick grove of lofty pines, about two
hundred yards from the water, and thirty feet above the level
of the high tides."
Chapter XVIII
Camping by the Pacific
Next in importance to the building of a winter camp was the fixing
of a place where salt could be made. Salt is absolutely
necessary for the comfort of man, and the supply brought out from
the United States by the explorers was now nearly all gone.
They were provided with kettles in which sea-water could be boiled
down and salt be made. It would be needful to go to work at once,
for the process of salt-making by boiling in ordinary kettles is
slow and tedious; not only must enough for present uses be found,
but a supply to last the party home again was necessary.
Accordingly, on the eighth of December the journal has this entry
to show what was to be done: -
"In order, therefore, to find a place for making salt, and to examine
the country further, Captain Clark set out with five men, and pursuing
a course S. 60'0 W., over a dividing ridge through thick pine timber,
much of which bad fallen, passed the beads of two small brooks.
In the neighborhood of these the land was swampy and overflowed,
and they waded knee-deep till they came to an open ridgy prairie,
covered with the plant known on our frontier by the name of sacacommis
[bearberry]. Here is a creek about sixty yards wide and running toward
Point Adams; they passed it on a small raft. At this place they
discovered a large herd of elk, and after pursuing them for three miles
over bad swamps and small ponds, killed one of them. The agility
with which the elk crossed the swamps and bogs seems almost incredible;
as we followed their track the ground for a whole acre would shake at
our tread and sometimes we sunk to our hips without finding any bottom.
Over the surface of these bogs is a species of moss, among which are
great numbers of cranberries; and occasionally there rise from the swamp
small steep knobs of earth, thickly covered with pine and laurel.
On one of these we halted at night, but it was scarcely large enough
to suffer us to lie clear of the water, and had very little dry wood.
We succeeded, however, in collecting enough to make a fire; and having
stretched the elk-skin to keep off the rain, which still continued,
slept till morning."
Next day the party were met by three Indians who had been fishing
for salmon, of which they had a goodly supply, and were now on their way
home to their village on the seacoast. They, invited Captain Clark
and his men to accompany them; and the white men accepted the invitation.
These were Clatsops. Their village consisted of twelve families living in
houses of split pine boards, the lower half of the house being underground.
By a small ladder in the middle of the house-front, the visitors
reached the floor, which was about four feet below the surface.
Two fires were burning in the middle of the room upon the earthen floor.
The beds were ranged around the room next to the wall, with spaces
beneath them for bags, baskets, and household articles.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 68 of 105
Words from 70404 to 71446
of 110166
