hich they eat their food. The roots are
swallowed as they are dug from the ground, frequently covered with a
gritty sand; so little idea have they that this is offensive that all
the roots they offer us for sale are in the same condition."

The explorers were now at the entrance of the mighty Columbia,--"The
Great River" of which they had heard so much from the Indians. We might
suppose that when they actually embarked upon the waters of the famous
stream, variously known as "The River of the North" and "The Oregon,"
the explorers would be touched with a little of the enthusiasm with
which they straddled the headwaters of the Missouri and gazed upon the
snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains. But no such kindling of
the imagination seems to have been noted in their journal. In this
commonplace way, according to their own account, Captain Clark entered
upon the mighty Columbia:--

"In the course of the day (October 17, 1805), Captain Clark, in a small
canoe with two men, ascended the Columbia. At the distance of five miles
he passed an island in the middle of the river, at the head of which
was a small but not dangerous rapid. On the left bank, opposite to this
island, was a fishing-place consisting of three mat houses. Here were
great quantities of salmon drying on scaffolds; and, indeed, from the
mouth of the river upward, he saw immense numbers of dead salmon strewed
along the shore, or floating on the surface of the water, which is so
clear that the fish may be seen swimming at the depth of fifteen or
twenty feet. The Indians, who had collected on the banks to observe him,
now joined him in eighteen canoes, and accompanied him up the river. A
mile above the rapids he came to the lower point of an island, where the
course of the stream, which had been from its mouth north eighty-three
degrees west, now became due west. He proceeded in that direction,
until, observing three house's of mats at a short distance, he landed
to visit them. On entering one of these houses, he found it crowded with
men, women, and children, who immediately provided a mat for him to sit
on, and one of the party undertook to prepare something to eat. He began
by bringing in a piece of pine wood that had drifted down the river,
which he split into small pieces with a wedge made of elkhorn, by means
of a mallet of stone curiously carved. The pieces of wood were then
laid on the fire, and several round stones placed upon them. One of the
squaw