Sunday (Saturday) January 18th. 1806.
Two of the Clatsops who were here yesterday returned today
for a dog they had left; they remained with us a few hours and
departed. no further occurrence worthy of relation took place.
the men are still much engaged in dressing skins in order to
cloath themselves and prepare for our homeward journey.
The Clatsops Chinnooks &c construct their houses of timber
altogether. they are from 14 to 20 feet wide and from 20 to
60 feet in length, and acommodate one or more families sometimes
three or four families reside in the same room. thes[e]
houses a[re] also divided by a partition of boards, but this
happens only in the largest houses as the rooms are always
large compared with the number of inhabitants. these houses
are constructed in the following manner; two or more posts
of split timber agreeably to the number of divisions or partitions
are furst provided, these are sunk in the ground at one
end and rise perpendicularly to the hight of 14 or 18 feet, the
tops of them are hollowed in such manner as to receive the
ends of a round beam of timber which reaches from one to
the other, most commonly the whole length of the building,
and forming the upper part of the roof; two other sets of
posts and poles are now placed at proper distances on either
side of the first, formed in a similar manner and parrallel to it;
these last rise to the intended hight of the eves, which is usually
about 5 feet. smaller sticks of timber are now provided and
are placed by pares in the form of rafters, resting on, and
reaching from the lower to the upper horizontal beam, to both
of which they are attatched at either end with the cedar bark;
two or three ranges of small poles are now placed horizontally
on these rafters on each side of the roof and are secured likewise
with strings of the Cedar bark. the ends sides and partitions
are then formed with one range of wide boards of ab[o]ut
two inches thick, which are sunk in the ground a small distance
at their lower ends and stand erect with their upper ends laping
on the outside of the eve poles and end rafters to which they
are secured by an outer pole lying parallel with the eve poles
and rafters being secured to them by chords of cedar bark
which pass through wholes made in the boards at certain distances
for that purpose; the rough [roof] is then covered with
a double range of thin boards, and an aperture of 2 by 3 feet
is left in the center of the roof to permit the smoke to pass.
these houses are sometimes sunk to the debth of 4 or 5 feet
in which cace the eve of the house comes nearly to the surface
of the earth. in the center of each room a space of six by eight
feet square is sunk about twelve inches lower than the floor
having it's sides secured with four sticks of squar timber, in
this space they make their fire, their fuel being generally pine
bark. mats are spread arround the fire on all sides, on these
they set in the day and frequently sleep at night. on the inner
side of the ho[u]se on two sides and sometimes on three, there
is a range of upright peices about 4 feet removed from the wall;
these are also sunk in the ground at their lower ends, and
secured at top to the rafters, from these other peices ar extended
horizontally to the wall and are secured in the usual
method by bark to the upright peices which support the eve
poles. on these short horizontal pieces of which there are
sometimes two ranges one above the other, boards are laid,
which either form ther beads, or shelves on which to put their
goods and chattles of almost every discription. their uncured
fish is hung on sticks in the smoke of their fires as is also the
flesh of the Elk when they happen to be fortunate enough to
procure it which is but seldom.
