Clark: April 8, 1806

Tuesday April 8th 1806. This morning about daylight I heard a considerable roaring like wind at a distance, and in the course of a short time waves rose very high which appeared to come across the river, and in the course of an hour became so high that we were obliged to unload the canoes. At 7 o'clock A.M. the winds swelled and blew so hard and raised the waves so immensely high from the N.E. and tossed our canoes against the shore in such a manner as to render it necessary to haul them up on the bank. Finding from the appearance of the winds that it is probable that we may be detained all day, we sent out Drewyer, Shannon, Colter, and Collins to hunt, with directions to return if the wind should lull, and if not, to continue the hunt all day unless they killed elk or bear sooner, etc. We had the dried meat, which was cured at our last encampment below, exposed to the sun. John Shields cut out my small rifle and brought her to shoot very well. The party owes much to the ingenuity of this man, by whom their guns are repaired when they get out of order, which is very often.

I observed an Indian woman who visited us yesterday blind of an eye, and a man who was nearly blind of both eyes. The loss of sight I have observed to be more common among all the nations inhabiting this river than among any people I ever observed. They have almost invariably sore eyes at all stages of life. The loss of an eye is very common among them; blindness in persons of middle age is by no means uncommon, and it is almost invariably a concomitant of old age. I know not to what cause to attribute this prevalent deficiency of the eye, except it be their exposure to the reflection of the sun on the water, to which they are constantly exposed in the occupation of fishing. About 1 P.M. Collins, Shannon, and Colter returned. Collins saw 2 bear but could not get a shot at them. Neither Shannon nor Colter saw anything worth shooting. Soon after, Drewyer returned, having only a summer duck. The elk have gone to the mountains, as the hunters suppose. In the evening late, an old man, his son, and grandson, and their wives, etc., came down during the time the waves raged with great fury. The wife of the grandson is a woman of different appearance from any we have seen on this river; she has a very round head and piercing black eyes. Soon after those people arrived, the old man was detected in stealing a spoon, and he was ordered away. At about 200 yards below our camp they built themselves a fire and did not return to our fires afterward. The wind continued violently hard all day, and threw our canoes with such force against the shore that one of them split before we could get it out.