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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,
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