y then left us. Accustomed as we were to the sight,
we could not but view with admiration the wonderful dexterity with which
they guide their canoes over the most boisterous seas; for though the
waves were so high that before they had gone half a mile the canoe was
several times out of sight, they proceeded with the greatest calmness
and security. Two of the hunters who set out yesterday had lost their
way, and did not return till this evening. They had seen in their ramble
great signs of elk and had killed six, which they had butchered and left
at a great distance. A party was sent in the morning."

On the third of December Captain Clark carved on the trunk of a great
pine tree this inscription:--

"WM. CLARK DECEMBER 3D 1805 BY LAND FROM THE

U. STATES IN 1804 & 5."

A few days later, Captain Lewis took with him a small party and set out
to find a suitable spot on which to build their winter camp. He did not
return as soon as he was expected, and considerable uneasiness was felt
in camp on that account. But he came in safely. He brought good news;
they had discovered a river on the south side of the Columbia, not far
from their present encampment, where there were an abundance of elk and
a favorable place for a winter camp. Bad weather detained them until the
seventh of December, when a favorable change enabled them to proceed.
They made their way slowly and very cautiously down-stream, the tide
being against them. The narrative proceeds:--

"We at length turned a point, and found ourselves in a deep bay: here we
landed for breakfast, and were joined by the party sent out three days
ago to look for the six elk, killed by the Lewis party. They had lost
their way for a day and a half, and when they at last reached the place,
found the elk so much spoiled that they brought away nothing but the
skins of four of them. After breakfast we coasted round the bay, which
is about four miles across, and receives, besides several small creeks,
two rivers, called by the Indians, the one Kilhowanakel, the other
Netul. We named it Meriwether's Bay, from the Christian name of Captain
Lewis, who was, no doubt, the first white man who had surveyed it. The
wind was high from the northeast, and in the middle of the day it rained
for two hours, and then cleared off. On reaching the south side of the
bay we ascended the Netul three miles, to the first point of high land
on its western bank, and formed our camp in a thick grove of loft