y go hand in hand, even in a state of nature. The
Columbia tribes had no conception of either; they were in the same
condition then as now, mean-spirited, and strangers to all those little
delicacies of behavior that had distinguished the mountain tribes.

The passage of the Narrows, above the Falls of the Columbia, trusting
to their fire-hollowed logs, demanded much daring and self-possession.
Captain Clark wrote:--

"As the portage of our canoes over this high rock would be impossible
with our Strength, and the only danger in passing thro those narrows
was the whorls and swills arriseing from the compression of the water,
and which I thought (as also our principal waterman Peter Crusat) by
good stearing we could pass down safe, accordingly I deturmined to pass
through this place, not with standing the horred appearance of this
agitated gut swelling, boiling & whorling in every direction which from
the top of the rock did not appear as bad as when I was in it; however
we passed safe to the astonishment of the Inds."

At other times they were not so successful in this sort of undertaking.
The canoes were often overset in the swift water, by being caught in
whirlpools or colliding with rocks, causing great inconvenience and
resulting in some serious losses of baggage. And the men were
performing this arduous labor upon a diet of dog-meat, and almost
nothing besides.

No matter what difficulties presented themselves from day to day, the
officers never lost sight of the chief purpose of their toils. The
journals of those days are replete with keen notes upon the country,
its resources, and its people. Soon after passing the Falls, there were
to be seen occasional signs of previous intercourse between the Indians
and the white traders who had visited the coast,--the squaws would
display a bit of colored cloth in their costumes; a few of the men
carried ancient guns, and occasionally one was decorated with a ruinous
old hat or the remains of a sailor's pea-jacket. These poor people had
touched the hem of the garment of civilization, and had felt some of
its meaner virtue pass into them. They showed daily less and less of
barbaric manliness; they were becoming from day to day more vicious,
thievish, and beggarly. The whites had as yet given them nothing worth
having, and had taught them nothing worth knowing. This was but
natural, considering the character of those who had visited the
Columbia region. They were not missio