falls of the Columbia, which they passed successfully by portages and by letting the canoes down the rapids with lines. At the next fall they managed, after partially unloading the canoes, to run them down through a narrow passage, past a high, black rock, much to the astonishment of the Indians.

Here they were surprised to find that the savages (Echeloots, related to the Upper Chinooks) were living in wooden houses, which consisted in large part of an underground room, lined with wood and covered above ground with a roof composed of ridgepole, rafters, and a white cedar covering. Here, as before, the explorers acted the part of peacemakers, and urged the Indians to cease their warfare with neighboring tribes. Lewis and Clark had before this seen flat-headed women and children in certain tribes, but here the men also had been subjected to this cruel practice. The result was often accomplished by binding a board tightly on an infant's forehead, and thus flattening it backward and upward.

On October 28 they were visited by an Indian "who wore his hair in a que [cue] and had on a round hat and a sailor's jacket which he said he had obtained from the people below the great rapids, who bought them from the whites." This was a cheering indication of their approach to the mouth of the Columbia, where the fur trade attracted American and English ships. Later they found an English musket and cutlass and some brass teakettles in an Indian hut, and one of the chiefs had cloths and a sword procured from some English vessel.

Thus they went on through the present Skamania County, Washington, hunting now and then with some slight success, observing the country, buying roots and dogs, and making notes of the habits of the natives and of their burial places, until they came to the great shoot" or last rapids of the Columbia, which they passed without serious accident.

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From Indians below the rapids they heard the encouraging news that three ships had lately been seen at the mouth of the river.

As they journeyed toward the sea, the entrance of the Multnomah, now the Willamette River, was concealed from them by the islands at its mouth. A few miles farther up, the prosperous city of Portland, Oregon, now stands. While they were being piloted down the river by the Indian who had come to them in a sailor's jacket, they caught sight of Mt. St. Helens.

Fog and rain, thievish Indians, and the noises of wild fowl at night were among their smaller troubles, but all were forgotten when, on November 7, the fog suddenly cleared away and "we enjoyed the delightful prospect of the ocean, that ocean, the object of all our labors, the reward of all our anxieties. This cheering view exhilarated the spirits of all the party, who were still more delighted on hearing the distant roar of the breakers."

Remembering what they had undergone, one can understand their joy at success in their perilous task. They had crossed the continent.

CHAPTER XVI

ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE

The winter camp. Peculiarities of the Clatsop Indians. A scarcity of supplies. Turning homeward. Surmounting the cascades. Journeying by land. Troublesome Indians. Living on dog flesh. A search for their horses. Indian cooking. Suffering of the explorers.

The sea gave them an inhospitable welcome. As they neared a camping place which they selected on Gray's Bay, in Wahkiakum County, Washington, the waves were so high that some of the men became seasick. Next day they were beaten back to camp by the rough water, which their canoes, mere dugouts, could not withstand. They were flooded by incessant rain and harassed by heavy winds, thievish Indians, and the fleas which were the Indians' constant companions.

At their next camp, on Baker's Bay, they suffered even more from the merciless rain.

They found game, and explored to some extent the mouth of the Columbia. They hoped to encounter a trading ship from which they could replenish their stores, but none appeared. It was necessary to find a place for a winter camp and Lewis finally discovered one, on the south side of the Columbia, not far from their present Before leaving the latter this inscription was carved on the trunk of a lofty pine:

camp.

"Wm. Clark December 3D 1805

By Land from the U. States
in 1804 & 5."

Some three miles up the Netul River, which empties into a bay named Meriwether's (for Captain Meriwether Lewis), they made their camp on a bluff in a grove of lofty pines. There they built seven log cabins, roofed with rude shingles, or more properly slabs, called "shakes," which were split from pine logs. Their meat house was replenished by hunting elk and deer. In the course of the winter they killed one hundred and thirty-one of the former and twenty of the latter.