Lewis: April 14, 1806

Monday April 14th 1806. This morning at seven oCk. we were joined by
Sergt. Pryor and the three hunters they brought with them 4 deer which
Drewyer had killed yesterday. we took breakfast and departed. at 9 A.M.
the wind arrose and continued hard all day but not so violent as to
prevent our proceeding. we kept close along the N. shore all day. the
river from the rapids as high as the commencement of the narrows is from
1/2 to 3/4 of a mile in width, and possesses scarcely any current. the bed
is principally rock except at the entrance of Labuish’s river which heads
in Mount hood and like the quicksand river brings down from thence vast
bodies of sand. the mountains through which the river passes nearly to the
sepulchre rock, are high broken, rocky, partially covered with fir white
cedar, and in many places exhibit very romantic seenes. some handsome
cascades are seen on either hand tumbling from the stupendious rocks of
the mountains into the river. near the border of the river I observed
today the long leafed pine. this pine increases in quantity as you ascend
the river and about the sepulchre rock where the lower country commences
it superceedes the fir altogether. throughout the whole course of this
river from the rapids as high as the Chilluckkittequaws, we find the
trunks of many large pine trees sanding erect as they grew at present in
30 feet water; they are much doated and none of them vegetating; at the
lowest tide of the river many of these trees are in ten feet water.
certain it is that those large pine trees never grew in that position, nor
can I account for this phenomenon except it be that the passage of the
river through the narrow pass at the rapids has been obstructed by the
rocks which have fallen from the hills into that channel within the last
20 years; the appearance of the hills at that place justify this opinion,
they appear constantly to be falling in, and the apparent state of the
decayed trees would seem to fix the era of their decline about the time
men-tioned. at 1 P.M. we arrived at a large village situated in a narrow
bottom on the N. side a little above the entrance of canoe creek. their
houses are reather detatched and extent for several miles. they are about
20 in number. These people call themselves We-ock-sock, Wil-lacum. they
differ but litte in appeance dress &c. from those of the rapids. Their
men have some leging and mockersons among them. these are in the stile of
Chopunnish. they have some good horses of which we saw ten or a douzen.
these are the fist horses we have met with since we left this
neighbourhood last fall, in short the country below this place will not
permit the uce of this valuable animal except in the Columbian vally and
there the present inhabitants have no uce for them as they reside
immediately on the river and the country is too thickly timbered to admit
them to run the game with horses if they had them. we halted at this
village and dined. purchased five dogs some roots, shappalell, filberds
and dryed burries of the inhabitants. here I observed several habitations
entirely under grownd; they were sunk about 8 feet deep and covered with
strong timber and several feet of earth in a conic form. these habitations
were evacuated at present. they are about 16 feet in diameter, nearly
circular, and are entered through a hole at the top which appears to
answer the double purpose of a chimney and a door. from this entrance you
decend to the floor by a ladder. the present habitations of these people
were on the surface of the ground and do not differ from those of the
tribes of the rapids. their language is the same with that of the
Chilluckkittequaws. these people appeared very friendly. some of them
informed us that they had lately returned from a war excurtion against the
snake indians who inhabit the upper part of the Multnomah river to the S.
E. of them. they call them To-wannah’-hi’-ooks. that they had been
fortunate in their expedition and had taken from their enimies most of the
horses which we saw in their possession. after dinner we pursued our
voyage; Capt. Clark walked on shore with Charbono. I ascended the river
about six miles at which place the river washed the base of high clifts on
the Lard. side, here we halted a few minutes and were joined by Capt. C.
and Charbono and proceeded on to the entrance of a small run on N. side a
little below a large village on the same side opposite the sepulchre rock.
this village can raise about an hundred fighting men they call themselves.
they do not differ in any rispect from the village below. many of them
visited our camp this evening and remained with us untill we went to bed.
they then left us and retired to their quarters.-