Their habitations were very comfortable; each had
its pile of wormwood at the door for fuel, and within was abundance
of salmon, some fresh, but the greater part cured. When the white men
visited the lodges, however, the women and children hid themselves
through fear. Among the supplies obtained here were two dogs, on
which our travellers breakfasted, and found them to be very excellent,
well-flavored, and hearty food.
In the course of the three following days they made about sixty-three
miles, generally in a northwest direction. They met with many of the
natives in their straw-built cabins, who received them without alarm.
About their dwellings were immense quantities of the heads and skins of
salmon, the best part of which had been cured, and hidden in the ground.
The women were badly clad; the children worse; their garments were
buffalo robes, or the skins of foxes, hares, and badgers, and sometimes
the skins of ducks, sewed together, with the plumage on. Most of the
skins must have been procured by traffic with other tribes, or in
distant hunting excursions, for the naked prairies in the neighborhood
afforded few animals, excepting horses, which were abundant. There were
signs of buffaloes having been there, but a long time before.
On the 15th of November they made twenty-eight miles along the river,
which was entirely free from rapids.
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