Clark: January 8, 1806

January 8, Wednesday. Set out at daybreak, a fine morning, wind hard from the S.E. At 1½ miles arrived at an opening where I had a view of the sea coast for a long distance, with rocks in every direction. Struck a branch and came down to the sea, at which place stood an old village between 2 creeks of the Colemix (Kilamox) Nation, which inhabits this coast. Their graveyard disposed of the dead in canoes, in which the bodies are laid in boxes inside the canoe, with paddles, etc. These people must use those canoes in the higher seas, the roughest I ever saw on a coast. Crossing a rugged country, I crossed 3 points, with rocks great distances out in the sea, and hillsides slipping from immense ravines which appear to ____. Proceeded on to the mouth of a creek about 80 yards wide, at which place I saw 5 lodges of Indians of the Ca-la-mix (Kilamox) nation, boiling whale in a trough of about 20 gallons with hot stones, and putting the oil into a canoe. I proceeded on a short distance to the whale, which was nothing more than the skeleton, 105 feet long. We took out a few bones and returned to the cabins at the mouth of the creek, and attempted to trade with these people, who I found close and capricious. They would not trade the smallest piece unless they thought they got an advantage in the bargain. Their disposition is avaricious and independent in trade. They offered to trade for elk, of which we had none. I purchased some oil and about 120 pounds of blubber after rendering. Finding they would not trade further, I determined to return home with what we have.

The houses of these people appear temporary: a ridge pole on 2 forks supports a certain number of split boards of red cedar and pine set on end, with the gable ends of the same materials, calculated for 2 families at first. The dress and appearance of the natives, as well as the language, are precisely that of the Clatsops and Chinnooks. These people save their oil in bladders, guts, etc.

Their food is principally fish that is thrown on the shores by the seas and left by the tide. This coast is rocky, the mountains high and rugged. They inform me that their nation lives in 5 villages to the S.E. of this place at the mouths of creeks in which they catch salmon in the season. I got from these people a few roots, some sturgeon, whale-____, etc. They call a whale "E-cu-la" and a creek "Shu-man." They have some few sea otters, for which they ask such prices that I could not purchase any of them.

The party much fatigued from crossing 1 mountain and 4 high points, steep and slippery, and also a stony beach, slippery and tiresome. The high tide obliged me to delay until late before the tide went out. I shot a raven and a gull with my small rifle, which surprised these people a little. They are fond of blue and white large beads only, files, and fish hooks, which must be large. After dinner we set out, crossed the creek in a small canoe (the tide being out), and camped on the opposite side. I was asked for ferriage and paid a pin. There was one hut on the side where I camped, and a village a short distance above which I did not see last night. All the men came over and smoked with me. About bedtime I heard a hollering on the opposite side of the river, which alarmed all the Indian men about me, and they ran across the creek. I suspected perhaps some of my party were over after the women, but on examining I found that McNeal was not in camp. My guide, who stayed with me, told me somebody's throat was cut. I immediately sent Sergeant Pryor and 2 men across for McNeal. They soon returned, having met the person. I was anxious to find out the cause of the alarm. McNeal said that a man invited him to go across and get some fish, locking arms with him, which he continued to hold. He took him into a lodge and the woman gave him a small piece. The man then invited him to another lodge; the woman of the lodge pulled his blanket and sent out a woman to holler across to inform the others of something which aided McNeal. I sent over Sergeant Pryor to learn the cause of the alarm, and he was informed that a plot had been laid to kill McNeal for his blanket and clothes by this Indian, who was from another village at some distance, and that she had attempted to stop McNeal, and finding she could not, she then alarmed the men. Several of the man's band were with me, who immediately cleared out. 2 men came over and slept at my feet. I kept a guard and sentinel all night. A fair night, wind blew from S.E. During the evening I acquired all the information possible respecting the coast to the S.E., got the names of many nations and the numbers of their houses, and a map of the coast in their way. I am very poor and weak for want of sufficient food, and fear much that I shall require more assistance to get back than I had to get to this place. A determined persistence will, as it has done, carry me through.

Wednesday 8th January 1805 [1806]. The last night proved fair and cold, wind hard from the S.E. We set out early and proceeded to the top of the mountain next to ours, which is much the highest part, and that part facing the sea is open. From this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed: in my front a boundless ocean; to the N. and N.E. the coast as far as my sight could be extended, the seas raging with immense waves and breaking with great force from the rocks of Cape Disappointment as far as I could see to the N.W.; the Clatsops, Chinnooks, and other villagers on each side of the Columbia River and in the prairies below me; the meanderings of 3 handsome streams heading in small lakes at the foot of the high country; the Columbia River for some distance up, with its bays and small rivers; and on the other side I have a view of the coast for an immense distance to the S.E. by S., the niches and points of high land which form this course for a long way, added to the innumerable rocks of immense size out at a great distance from the shore, against which the seas break with great force, give this coast a most romantic appearance. From this point of view my guide pointed to a village at the mouth of a small river, near which place he said the whale was. He also pointed to 4 other places where the principal villages of the Kil-la-mox were situated. I could plainly see the houses of 2 of those villages, and the smoke of a 3rd, which was too far off for me to discern with my naked eye.

After taking the courses and computing the distances in my own mind, I proceeded on down a steep descent to a single house, the remains of an old Kil-a-mox town in a niche immediately on the sea coast, at which place a great number of irregular rocks are out and the waves come in with great force. Near this old town I observed large canoes of the neatest kind on the ground, some of which appeared nearly decayed, others quite sound. I examined those canoes and found they were the repository of the dead. This custom of securing the dead differs a little from the Chinnooks. The Kil-a-mox secure the dead bodies in an oblong box of plank, which is placed in an open canoe resting on the ground, in which is put a paddle and sundry other articles, the property of the deceased. The coast in the neighborhood of this old village is slipping from the sides of the high hills in immense masses; fifty or a hundred acres at a time give way, and a great proportion in an instant is precipitated into the ocean. Those hills and mountains are principally composed of a yellow clay; their slipping off or splitting asunder at this time is no doubt caused by the incessant rains which have fallen within the last two months. The mountains are covered with a very heavy growth of pine and fir, also the white cedar or arbor vitae, and a small proportion of the black alder. This alder grows to the height of sixty or seventy feet and from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. Some species of pine on the top of the point of view rise to the immense height of 210 feet and from 8 to 12 feet in diameter, and are perfectly sound and solid.

Wind hard from the S.E., and the sea looked ____ in the latter part of the day, breaking with great force against the scattered rocks at some distance from shore, and against the rugged rocky points under which we were obliged to pass. If we had unfortunately made one false step, we should inevitably have fallen into the sea and been dashed against the rocks in an instant. Fortunately, we passed over 3 of those dismal points and arrived on a beautiful sand shore, on which we continued for 2 miles. Crossed a creek 80 yards wide near 5 cabins, and proceeded to the place where the whale had perished. Found only the skeleton of this monster on the sand between 2 of the villages of the Kil-a-mox nation; the whale was already pillaged of every valuable part by the Kil-a-mox Indians, in the vicinity of whose villages it lay on the strand where the waves and tide had driven up and left it. This skeleton measured 105 feet. I returned to the village of 5 cabins on the creek, which I shall call E-co-la or Whale Creek, and found the natives busily engaged boiling the blubber, which they performed in a large square wooden trough by means of hot stones. The oil when extracted was secured in bladders and in the guts of the whale. The blubber from which the oil was only partially extracted by this process was laid by in their cabins in large flitches for use. These flitches they usually expose to the fire on a wooden spit until they are pretty well warmed through, and then eat them either alone or with roots of the rush, Shaw-na-tdk-we, or dipped in the oil. The Kil-a-mox, although they possessed large quantities of this blubber and oil, were so penurious that they disposed of it with great reluctance and in small quantities only, insomuch that my utmost exertion, aided by the party with the small stock of merchandise I had taken with me, were not able to procure more blubber than about 300 weight and a few gallons of oil. Small as this stock is, I prize it highly, and thank providence for directing the whale to us, and think him much more kind to us than he was to Jonah, having sent this monster to be swallowed by us instead of swallowing us, as Jonah's did.

I recrossed E-co-la Creek and camped on the bank, at which place we observed an abundance of fine wood. The Indian men followed me for the purpose of smoking. I inquired of these people as well as I could by signs about the situation, mode of living, and strength of their nation. They informed me that the bulk of their nation lived in 3 large villages still further along the sea coast to the S.S.W., at the entrance of 3 creeks which fell into a bay, and that other houses were scattered about on the coast, bay, and on a small river which fell into the bay, in which they caught salmon, and from this creek (which I call Kil-a-mox River) they crossed over to the Wappato Island on the Shock-ah-lil-com (which is the Indian name for the Columbia River) and purchased wappato, etc. They said that the nation was once very large and that they had a great many houses. In salmon season they caught great numbers of that fish in the small creeks; when the salmon was scarce, they found sturgeon and a variety of other fish thrown up by the waves and left by the tide, which were very fine. Elk were plenty in the mountains, but they could not kill many of them with their arrows. The Kil-a-mox in their habits, customs, manners, dress, and language differ but little from the Clatsops, Chinnooks, and others in this neighborhood. Their houses are of the same form as those of the Clatsops, with a door at each end and two fireplaces, i.e., the house is twice as long as wide and divided into 2 equal parts with a post in the middle supporting the ridge pole, and in the middle of each of those divisions they make their fires. The doors are small, and the houses are sunk 5 feet.