Lewis: January 24, 1806

Saturday January 24th 1806. Drewyer and Baptiest La Paage returned this
morning in a large Canoe with Comowooll and six Clatsops. they brought two
deer and the flesh of three Elk & one Elk’s skin, having given the
flesh of one other Elk which they killed and three Elk’s skins to the
Indians as the price of their assistance in transporting the ballance of
the meat to the Fort; these Elk and deer were killed near point Adams and
the Indians carryed them on their backs about six miles, before the waves
were sufficiently low to permit their being taken on board their canoes.
the Indians remained with us all day. The Indians witnissed Drewyer’s
shooting some of those Elk, which has given them a very exalted opinion of
us as marksmen and the superior excellence of our rifles compared with
their guns; this may probably be of service to us, as it will deter them
from any acts of hostility if they have ever meditated any such. My
Air-gun also astonishes them very much, they cannot comprehend it’s
shooting so often and without powder; and think that it is great medicine
which comprehends every thing that is to them incomprehensible.

I observe no difference between the liquorice of this country and that
common to many parts of the United states where it is also sometimes
cultivated in our gardens. this plant delights in a deep loose sandy soil;
here it grows very abundant and large; the natives roast it in the embers
and pound it slightly with a small stick in order to make it seperate more
readily from the strong liggament which forms the center of the root; this
the natives discard and chew and swallow the ballance of the root; this
last is filled with a number of thin membrenacious lamela like net work,
too tough to be masticated and which I find it necessary also to discard.
this root when roasted possesses an agreeable flavour not unlike the sweet
pittaitoe. beside the small celindric root mentioned on the 20th inst.,
they have also another about the same form size and appearance which they
use much with the train oil, this root is usually boiled; to me it
possesses a disagreeable bitterness. the top of this plant I have never
yet seen. The root of the thistle after undergoing the prossess of
sweating or baking in a kiln is sometimes eaten with the train oil also,
and at other times pounded fine and mixed with could water untill reduced
to the consistency of sagamity or indian mush; in this way I think it very
agreeable. but the most valuable of all their roots is foreign to this
neighbourhood I mean the Wappetoe, or the bulb of the Sagitifolia or
common arrow head, which grows in great abundance in the marshey grounds
of that beatifull and firtile valley on the Columbia commencing just above
the entrance of Quicksand River, and extending downwards for about 70
Miles. this bulb forms a principal article of traffic between the
inhabitants of the valley and those of this neighbourhood or sea coast.
The instrument used by the natives in diging their roots is a strong stick
of 31/2 feet long sharpened at the lower end and it’s upper inscerted into
a part of an Elks or buck’s horn which serves as a handle, standing
transversely with the stick or it is in this form A the lower point, B the
upper part or handle.