uncomfortable. On
this little neck of land we are exposed, with a miserable covering
which does not deserve the name of shelter, to the violence of the
winds; all our bedding and stores, as well as our bodies, are
completely wet; our clothes are rotting with constant exposure, and we
have no food except the dried fish brought from the falls. The hunters
all returned hungry and drenched with rain, having seen neither deer
nor elk, and the swan and brant were too shy to be approached."

Day after day they subsisted upon this dried fish, mixed with
sea-water. Captain Clark nearly lost his admirable poise. On the first
day of December he wrote:--

"24 days since we arrived at the _Great Western_ (for I cannot say
Pacific) Ocian as I have not seen one pacific day since my arrival in
this vicinity, and its waters are forming and petially breake with
emence waves on the sands and rockey coasts, tempestous and horiable."

Two days later one of the hunters killed an elk--the first to be
secured on the western side of the mountains; and that was a holiday in
consequence, though the animal was lean and poor enough, and hardly fit
to be eaten.

Curiously, the greatest trial of that life was the absence of real
hazard. Adventure and danger, which make discomfort tolerable to such
men as they, were altogether wanting; in their place was nothing but a
dull, dead level of endurance, an expenditure of time and strength to
no apparent end.

But by the middle of December the site of winter quarters was gained,
and then the log huts began to take form. The men needed this
consolation. Under date of the 14th, the journal says:--

"Notwithstanding that scarcely a man has been dry for many days, the
sick are recovering.... It had been cloudy all day, at night began to
rain, and as we had no cover we were obliged to sit up the greater part
of the night; for as soon as we lay down the rain would come under us
and compel us to rise."

"December 17th. It rained all night, and this morning there was a high
wind; hail as well as rain fell; and on the top of a mountain about ten
miles to the southeast of us we observed some snow. The greater part of
our stores is wet; our leathern tent is so rotten that the slightest
touch makes a rent in it, and it will now scarcely shelter a spot large
enough for our beds. We were all busy in finishing the insides of the
huts. The after part of the day was cool and fair. But this respite was
of very shor