by the guide and all his men, except one whom he left with
orders to purchase a horse and join him as soon as possible. At the
distance of four miles he crossed the river, and eight miles from the
camp halted for the night at a small stream. The road which he followed
was a beaten path through a wide rich meadow, in which were several old
lodges. On the route he met a number of men, women, and children, as
well as horses, and one of the men who appeared to possess some
consideration turned back with him, and observing a woman with three
salmon obtained them from her, and presented them to the party. Captain
Clarke shot a mountain cock or cock of the plains, a dark brown bird
larger than the dunghill fowl, with a long and pointed tail, and a
fleshy protuberance about the base of the upper chop, something like
that of the turkey, though without the snout. In the morning,

Wednesday 21, he resumed his march early, and at the distance of five
miles reached an Indian lodge of brush, inhabited by seven families of
Shoshonees. They behaved with great civility, gave the whole party as
much boiled salmon as they could eat, and added as a present several
dried salmon and a considerable quantity of chokecherries. After smoking
with them all he visited the fish weir, which was about two hundred
yards distant; the river was here divided by three small islands, which
occasioned the water to pass along four channels. Of these three were
narrow, and stopped by means of trees which were stretched across, and
supported by willow stakes, sufficiently near each other to prevent the
passage of the fish. About the centre of each was placed a basket
formed of willows, eighteen or twenty feet in length, of a cylindrical
form, and terminating in a conic shape at its lower extremity; this was
situated with its mouth upwards, opposite to an aperture in the weir.
The main channel of the water was then conducted to this weir, and as
the fish entered it they were so entangled with each other that they
could not move, and were taken out by untying the small end of the
willow basket. The weir in the main channel was formed in a manner
somewhat different; there were in fact two distinct weirs formed of
poles and willow sticks quite across the river, approaching each other
obliquely with an aperture in each side near the angle. This is made by
tying a number of poles together at the top, in parcels of three, which
were then set up in a triangular form at