e they struck one of the tributaries of the Snake
sufficiently low down to enable them once more to go by boat.

The Indians they Met.

They now met many Indians of various tribes, all of them very different
from the Indians of the Western Plains. At this time the Indians both
east and west of the Rockies, already owned numbers of horses. Although
they had a few guns, they relied mainly on the spears and tomahawks, and
bows and arrows with which they had warred and hunted from time
immemorial; for only the tribes on the outer edges had come in contact
with the whites, whether with occasional French and English traders who
brought them goods, or with the mixed bloods of the northern Spanish
settlements, upon which they raided. Around the mouth of the Columbia,
however, the Indians knew a good deal about the whites; the river had
been discovered by Captain Gray of Boston thirteen years before, and
ships came there continually, while some of the Indian tribes were
occasionally visited by traders from the British fur companies.

With one or two of these tribes the explorers had some difficulty, and
owed their safety to their unceasing vigilance, and to the prompt
decision with which they gave the Indians to understand that they would
tolerate no bad treatment; while yet themselves refraining carefully
from committing any wrong. By most of the tribes they were well
received, and obtained from them not only information of the route, but
also a welcome supply of food. At first they rather shrank from eating
the dogs which formed the favorite dish of the Indians; but after a
while they grew quite reconciled to dog's flesh; and in their journals
noted that they preferred it to lean elk and deer meat, and were much
more healthy while eating it.

Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Coast.

They reached the rain-shrouded forests of the coast before cold weather
set in, and there they passed the winter; suffering somewhat from the
weather, and now and then from hunger, though the hunters generally
killed plenty of elk, and deer of a new kind, the blacktail of the
Columbia.

They Start Eastward Again.

In March, 1806, they started eastward to retrace their steps. At first
they did not live well, for it was before the time when the salmon came
up-stream, and game was not common. When they reached the snow-covered
mountains there came another period of toil and starvation,
and they were glad indeed when they emerged o