er."

Of the stock of portable provisions there remained only a few cans of
soup and about twenty pounds of bear's oil; and there was "no living
creature in these mountains, except a few pheasants, a small species of
gray squirrel, and a blue bird of the vulture kind about the size of a
turtle-dove or jay; even these are difficult to shoot."

Again Captain Clark went ahead. For several days he suffered extremely
from hunger and exposure; but on the 20th he descended into an open
valley, where he came upon a band of Nez Perce Indians, who gave him
food. But after his long abstinence, when he ate a plentiful meal of
fish his stomach revolted, and for several days he was quite ill.

Matters fared badly with Captain Lewis's party, following on Clark's
trail. On the day of Clark's departure, they could not leave their
night's camp until nearly noon, "because, being obliged in the evening
to loosen our horses to enable them to find subsistence, it is always
difficult to collect them in the morning.... We were so fortunate as to
kill a few pheasants and a prairie wolf, which, with the remainder of
the horse, supplied us with one meal, the last of our provisions; our
food for the morrow being wholly dependent on the chance of our guns."
Bearing heavy burdens, and losing much time with the continued straying
of the horses, they made but indifferent progress, and it was not until
the 22d that they reached the Nez Perce village and joined Captain
Clark. Then they, too, almost to a man, suffered severe illness, caused
by the unwonted abundance of food. From the high altitudes and the
scant diet of horseflesh to the lower levels of the valley and a
plentiful diet of fish and camass-root was too great a change.

Two of the men in particular had cause to remember those days. They had
been sent back to find and bring on some of the horses that were lost.
Failing to find the animals, after a long search, they started to
overtake their companions. They had no provisions, nor could they find
game of any kind. Death by starvation was close upon them, when they
found the head of one of the horses that had been killed by their
mates. The head had been thrown aside as worthless; but to these two it
was a veritable godsend. It was at once roasted, and from the flesh and
gristle of the lips, ears, and cheeks they made a meal which saved
their lives.

The Nez Perce villages were situated upon a stream called the
Kooskooskee, or Clearwater,