University of Virginia Library

[Clark:]

Friday 25th. of April 1806

This morning we collected our horses very conveniently and
set out at 9 A M and proceeded on to a village of Pish-quit-pahs
of 52 mat Lodges 11 miles this village contains about
700 soles here we turned out our horses and bought 5 dogs
& some wood and dined here we met with a Chief and gave
him a Medal of the small size. we passed a house a little
above the place we encamped on the 20th. of Octr. 1805. we
offered to purchase with what articles we had such as old
clothes &c. emence numbers of those Indians flocked about
us and behaved with distant respect toward us. we attempted

to purchase some horses without suckcess. at 4 P. M set out.
I was in the rear and had not proceeded verry far before one
of the horses which we had hired of the Chopunnish, was taken
from Hall who I had directed to ride. he had fallen behind
out of my sight at the time. we proceeded on about 9 miles
through a country similar to that of yesterday and encamped
below the mouth of a small creek we passed at 4 miles a
Village of 5 Mat Lodges of the War-war-wa[15] Tribe. We made
a Chief and gave a Medal to a Chief of each of those two
tribes. great numbers of the nativs accompanied us to our
encampment. The Curloos are abundant in those places &
are now laying their eggs. Saw the Kildee the brown Lizzard,
and a Moonax which the nativs had petted. the winds which
set from Mount hood or in a westwardly direction are much
more cold than those from any other quarter. there are no
dews in these plains, and from the appearance of the earth
there appears to have been no rain for several weeks. The
pish-quit-pahs may be considered as hunters as well as fishermen
as they spend the fall & winter months in that occupation.
they are generally pleasently featured of good statu[r]e and
well proportioned both women and men ride extreamly well.
their bridle is usially a hair rope tied with both ends to the
under Jaw of the horse, and their saddles consist of a pad of
dressed skin stuffed with goats hair with wooden sturreps.
almost all the horses I have seen in the possession of the
Indians have sore backs. The pishquitpahs women for the
most part dress with short shirts which reach to their knees
long legins and mockersons, they also use long robes; some
of them weare only the truss and robe, they brade their hair
as before discribed but the heads of neither the male nor female
of this tribe are so much flattened as the nativs lower down on
this river. We were accompanied by 18 or 20 young men on
horsback. we continued our rout about 9 miles, where finding
as maney willows as would answer our purpose for fuel we
encamped for the night, the country we passed through was
sandy indifferent rocky and hills on the left. proceeded up
on the North Side the river hills are about 250 feet high &
generally abrupt and craggey in maney places faced with a pirpendicular
and solid rock. this rock is black and hard. leavel
plains extend themselves from the top of the river hills to a
great distance on either side of the river. the soil is not as
fertile as about the falls tho it produces low grass on which the
horses feed very conveniently. it astonished me to see the
order of their horses at this season of the year when I know
they had wintered on dry grass of the plains and at the same
time rode with greater severity than is common among ourselves.
I did not see a single horse which could be deemed
pore, and maney of them was verry fat; their horses are
generally good. this evening after we had encamped we traded
for two horses with nearly the same articles we had offered at
the village, these nags Capt. L—s and myself intend rideing
ourselves; haveing now a sufficiency to transport with ease all
our baggage and the packs of the men. we killed 6 ducks in
the course of the day; one of them were of a species I had
never before seen. the legs yellow and feet webbed as those
of the duckinmallard. Saw great numbers of Common
Lizzards. Several rattle snakes, killed by the party, they are
the same as those common to the U. States. the Horned
Lizzard is also common. a chief over took us. we had the
fiddle played by the request of the nativs and some of the men
danced. I think those plains are much more sandy than any
which I have seen and the road is a bed of loose sand. made
20 miles.