Lewis: February 1, 1806
Saturday February 1st 1806. This morning a party of four men set out with
Joseph Fields; Sergt. Gass with a party of five men again set out up the
Netul river in surch of the Elk which had been killed some days since, and
which could not be found in consequence of the snow. The Canoes of the
natives inhabiting the lower portion of the Columbia River make their
canoes remarkably neat light and well addapted for riding high waves. I
have seen the natives near the coast riding waves in these canoes with
safety and apparently without concern where I should have thought it
impossible for any vessel of the same size to lived a minute. they are
built of whitecedar or Arborvita generally, but sometimes of the firr.
they are cut out of a solid stick of timber, the gunwals at the upper edge
foald over outwards and are about 5/8 of an inch thick and 4 or five
broad, and stand horrizontally forming a kind of rim to the canoe to
prevent the water beating into it. they are all furnished with more or
less crossbars in proportion to the size of the canoe. these bars are
round sticks about half the size of a man’s arm, which are incerted
through holes (just) made in either side of the canoe just below the rim
of the gunwall and are further secured with strings of waytape; these
crossbars serve to lift and manage the canoe on land. when the natives
land they invariably take their canoes on shore, unless they are heavily
laden, and then even, if they remain all night, they discharge their loads
and take the canoes on shore. some of the large canoes are upwards of 50
feet long and will carry from 8 to 10 thousand lbs. or from 20 to thirty
persons and some of them particularly on the sea coast are waxed painted
and ornimented with curious images at bough and Stern; those images
sometimes rise to the hight of five feet; the pedestals on which these
immages are fixed are sometimes cut out of the solid stick with the canoe,
and the imagary is formed of seperate small peices of timber firmly united
with tenants and motices without the assistance of a single spike of any
kind. when the natives are engaged in navigating their canoes one sets in
the stern and steers with a paddle the others set by pears and paddle over
the gunwall next them, they all kneel in the bottom of the canoe and set
on their feet. their paddles are of a uniform shape of which this is an
imitation these paddles are made very thin and the middle of the blade is
thick and hollowed out siddonly and made thin at the sides while the
center forms a kind of rib. the blade occupys about one third of the
length of the paddle which is usually from 41/2 to 5 feet. I have observed
four forms of canoe only in uce among the nations below the grand chatarac
of this river they are as follow. this is the smallest size about 15 feet
long and calculated for one or two persons, and are most common among the
Cathlahmahs and Wack ki a cums among the marshey Islands. A the bow; B,
the stern; these are from twenty to thirty five feet and from two 1/2 to 3
feet in the beam and about 2 feet in the hole; this canoe is common to all
the nations below the grand rappids. it is here made deeper and shorter in
proportion than they really are.the bowsprit from C, to D is
brought to a sharp edge tapering gradually from the sides.
This is the most common forms of the canoe in uce among the Indians from;
the Chil-luck-kit-te-quaw inclusive to the Ocean and is usually about 30
or 35 feet long, and will carry from ten to twelve persons. 4 men are
competent to carry them a considerable distance say a mile without
resting. A is the end which they use as the bow, but which on first sight
I took to be the stern C. D. is a comb cut of the sollid stick with the
canoe and projects from the center of the end of the canoe being about 1
inch thirck it’s sides parallel and edge at C D. sharp. it is from 9 to 11
Inches in length and extends from the underpart of the bowsprit at A to
the bottom of the canoe at D.the stern B. is mearly rounding and
graduly ascending. 1 2 3 represents the rim of the gunwalls about 4 Inches
wide, reather ascending as they recede from the canoe. 4 5 6 7 8 are the
round holes through which the cross bars are inserted.
This form of canoe we did not meet with untill we reached tidewater or
below the grand rappids. from thence down it is common to all the nations
but more particularly the Killamucks and others of the coast. these are
the largest canoes. B. is the bow and comb. C. the stern and comb. their
immages are representations of a great variety of grotesque figures, any
of which might be safely worshiped without committing a breach of the
commandments.
They have but few axes among them, and the only too usually imployed in
felling the trees or forming the canoe, carving &c is a chissel formed
of an old file about an Inch or an Inch and a half broad. this chissel has
sometimes a large block of wood for a handle; they grasp the chissel just
below the block with the right hand holding the edge down while with the
left they take hold of the top of the block and strike backhanded against
the wood with the edge of the chissel. a person would suppose that the
forming of a large canoe with an instrument like this was the work of
several years; but these people make them in a few weeks. they prize their
canoes very highly; we have been anxious to obtain some of them, for our
journey up the river but have not been able to obtain one as yet from the
natives in this neighbourhood.- today we opened and examined all our
ammunition, which had been secured in leaden canesters. we found twenty
seven of the best rifle powder, 4 of common rifle, three of glaized and
one of the musqut powder in good order, perfectly as dry as when first put
in the canesters, altho the whole of it from various accedents has been
for hours under the water. these cannesters contain four lbs. of powder
each and 8 of lead. had it not have been for that happy expedient which I
devised of securing the powder by means of the lead, we should not have
had a single charge of powder at this time. three of the canesters which
had been accedentally bruized and cracked, one which was carelessly
stoped, and a fifth that had been penetrated with a nail, were a little
dammaged; these we gave to the men to make dry; however exclusive of those
five we have an abundant stock to last us back; and we always take care to
put a proportion of it in each canoe, to the end that should one canoe or
more be lost we should still not be entirely bereft of ammunition, which
is now our only hope for subsistence and defence in a rout of 4000 miles
through a country exclusively inhabited by savages.
