s,
and sometimes the lives of many of the nation."

After making a short stage on their journey, October 11, the party
stopped to trade with the Indians, their stock of provisions being low.
They were able to purchase a quantity of salmon and seven dogs. They
saw here a novel kind of vapor bath which is thus described in the
journal:--

"While this traffic was going on we observed a vapor bath or
sweating-house, in a different form from that used on the frontier of
the United States or in the Rocky Mountains. It was a hollow square six
or eight feet deep, formed in the river bank by damming up with mud the
other three sides and covering the whole completely, except an aperture
about two feet wide at the top. The bathers descend by this hole, taking
with them a number of heated stones and jugs of water; after being
seated round the room they throw the water on the stones till the steam
becomes of a temperature sufficiently high for their purposes. The baths
of the Indians in the Rocky Mountains are of different sizes, the
most common being made of mud and sticks like an oven, but the mode of
raising the steam is exactly the same. Among both these nations it is
very uncommon for a man to bathe alone; he is generally accompanied
by one or sometimes several of his acquaintances; indeed, it is so
essentially a social amusement, that to decline going in to bathe when
invited by a friend is one of the highest indignities which can be
offered to him. The Indians on the frontier generally use a bath which
will accommodate only one person, formed of a wicker-work of willows
about four feet high, arched at the top, and covered with skins. In this
the patient sits, till by means of the heated stones and water he
has perspired sufficiently. Almost universally these baths are in the
neighborhood of running water, into which the Indians plunge immediately
on coming out of the vapor bath, and sometimes return again and subject
themselves to a second perspiration. This practice is, however, less
frequent among our neighboring nations than those to the westward.
This bath is employed either for pleasure or for health, and is used
indiscriminately for all kinds of diseases."

The expedition was now on the Snake River, making all possible speed
toward the Columbia, commonly known to the Indians as "The Great River."
The stream was crowded with dangerous rapids, and sundry disasters were
met with by the way; thus, on the fourteenth of Oc