The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates December 8, 1805 - December 10,
1805
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: December 8, 1805 - December 10, 1805
December 8,
1805
Sunday 8. This seemed the most elligible spot for our winter
establishment. In order therefore to find a place for making
salt, and to examine the country further, captain Clarke
set out with five men, and pursuing a course south, 60°
west, over a dividing ridge, through thick pine timber,
much of which had fallen, passed the heads of two small
brooks. In the neighborhood of these the land was swampy
and overflowed, and we waded knee-deep till we came to an
open ridgy prairie, covered with the plant known on our
frontier by the name of sacacommis. Here is a creek about
sixty yards wide, and running towards 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, we 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 steep and small 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,
December
9, 1805
Monday 9, when
we rose, perfectly wet with rain during the night. Three
men were then sent in pursuit of the elk, while with the
other three, captain Clarke proceeded westward towards the
sea. He passed over three swamps, and then arrived at a
creek, which was too deep to ford, and there was no wood
to make a raft. He therefore proceeded down it for a short
distance, till he found that he was between the forks of
a creek. One branch of which he had passed yesterday, turns
round towards the southwest to meet another of equal size
from the south, and together they form a small river, about
seventy yards wide. He returned to the place where he had
left the raft, and having crossed proceeded down about a
mile, when he met three Indians. They were loaded with fresh
salmon which they had taken with a gig, and were now returning
to their village on the seacoast, where they invited him
to accompany them. He agreed, and they brought out a canoe
hid along the banks of the creek. In this they passed over
the branch which he had just crossed on a raft, and then
carried the canoe a quarter of a mile to the other fork,
which they crossed and continued down to the mouth of the
river. At this place it makes a great bend, where the river
is seventy yards wide; just above, or to the south of which
is the village. We crossed over, and found that it consisted
of three houses, inhabited by twelve families of Clatsops.
They
were on the south exposure of a hill, and sunk about four
feet deep into the ground; the walls, roof, and gable-ends
being formed of split pine boards; the descent through a
small door down a ladder. There are two fires in the middle
of the room, and the beds disposed round the walls two or
three feet from the fall, so as to leave room under them
for their bags, baskets and household articles. The floor
itself is covered with mats. Captain Clarke was received
with much attention. As soon as he entered, clean mats were
spread, and fish, berries and roots set before him on small
neat platters of rushes. After he had eaten, the men of
the other houses came and smoked with him. They all appeared
much neater in their persons and diet than Indians generally
are, and frequently wash their hands and faces, a ceremony
by no means frequent elsewhere. While he was conversing
with them, a flock of brant lighted on the water, and he
with a small rifle shot one of them at a great distance.
They immediately jumped in, and brought it on shore, very
much astonished at the shot, which contributed to make them
increase their attention. Towards evening it began to rain
and blow very violently from the southwest; and captain
Clarke therefore, determined to remain during the night.
When they thought his appetite had returned, an old woman
presented him in a bowl, made of lightcoloured horn, a kind
of sirrup, pleasant to the taste, and made from a species
of berry common in this country, about the size of a cherry,
and called by the Indians shelwel: of these berries a bread
is also prepared, which being boiled with roots forms a
soup, which was served in neat wooden trenchers: this, with
some cockles, was his repast. The men of the village now
collected, and began to gamble. The most common game, was
one in which one of the company was banker, and played against
all the rest. He had a piece of bone, about the size of
a large bean, and having agreed with any individual as to
the value of the stake, would pass the bone from one hand
to the other, with great dexterity, singing at the same
time, to divert the attention of his adversary; and then
holding it in his hands, his antagonist was challenged to
guess in which of them the bone was, and lost or won as
he pointed to the right or wrong hand. To this game of hazard
they abandoned themselves with great ardor; sometimes every
thing they possess is sacrificed to it, and this evening
several of the Indians lost all the beads which they had
with them. This lasted for three hours, when captain Clarke
appearing disposed to sleep, the man who had been most attentive,
and whose name was Cuskalah, spread two new mats near the
fire, and ordering his wife to retire to her own bed, the
rest of the company dispersed at the same time. Captain
Clarke then lay down, but the violence with which the fleas
attacked him, did not leave his rest unbroken, and he rose,
December
10, 1805
Tuesday 10, early.
The morning was cloudy, with some rain: he walked out on
the seashore, and observed the Indians walking up and down
the creek and examining the shore: he was at a loss to understand
their object, till one of them came to him and explained
that they were in search of fish which had been thrown on
shore and left by the tide, adding in English, "sturgeon
is very good." There is indeed, every reason to suppose,
that these Clatsops depend for their subsistence during
the winter, chiefly on the fish thus casually thrown on
the coast. After amusing himself for some time on the beach,
he returned towards the village, and shot on his way two
brant. As he came near the village, one of the Indians asked
him to shoot a duck about thirty steps distant: he did so,
and having accidentally shot off its head, the bird was
brought to the village by the Indians, all of whom came
round in astonishment: they examined the duck, the musket,
and the very small bullet, which were a hundred to the pound,
and then exclaimed, Clouch musquet, wake, commatax musquet:
a good musket, do not understand this kind of musket. They
now placed before him their best roots, fish, and sirrup,
after which he attempted to purchase a sea-otter skin with
some red beads which he happened to have about him; but
they declined trading, as they valued none except blue or
white beads: he therefore bought nothing but a little berry
bread and a few roots in exchange for fish-hooks, and then
set out to return by the same route on which he came. He
was accompanied by Cuskalah and his brother as far as the
third creek, and then proceeded to the camp through a heavy
rain. The whole party had been occupied during his absence
in cutting down trees to make huts, and in hunting.
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