s now brought a bucket of water, in which was a large salmon about
half dried, and, as the stones became heated, they were put into the
bucket till the salmon was sufficiently boiled for use. It was then
taken out, put on a platter of rushes neatly made, and laid before
Captain Clark, while another was boiled for each of his men. During
these preparations he smoked with such about him as would accept of
tobacco, but very few were desirous of smoking, a custom which is
not general among them, and chiefly used as a matter of form in great
ceremonies.

"After eating the fish, which was of an excellent flavor, Captain Clark
set out and, at the distance of four miles from the last island, came to
the lower point of another near the left shore, where he halted at two
large mat-houses. Here, as at the three houses below, the inhabitants
were occupied in splitting and drying salmon. The multitudes of this
fish are almost inconceivable. The water is so clear that they can
readily be seen at the depth of fifteen or twenty feet; but at this
season they float in such quantities down the stream, and are drifted
ashore, that the Indians have only to collect, split, and dry them on
the scaffolds. Where they procure the timber of which these scaffolds
are composed he could not learn; but as there is nothing but
willow-bushes to be seen for a great distance from this place, it
rendered very probable what the Indians assured him by signs, that they
often used dried fish as fuel for the common occasions of cooking. From
this island they showed him the entrance of the western branch of the
Columbia, called the Tapteal, which, as far as could be seen, bears
nearly west and empties about eight miles above into the Columbia, the
general course of which is northwest."

The Tapteal, as the journal calls it, is now known as the Yakima,
a stream which has its source in the Cascade range of mountains,
Washington. The party tarried here long enough to secure from the
Indians a tolerably correct description of the river upon which they
were about to embark. One of the chiefs drew upon the skin-side of a
buffalo robe a sketch of the Columbia. And this was transferred to paper
and put into the journal. That volume adds here:--

"Having completed the purposes of our stay, we now began to lay in our
stores. Fish being out of season, we purchased forty dogs, for which we
gave small articles, such as bells, thimbles, knitting-needles, brass
wire, and a