Clark: November 26, 1805

November 26th Tuesday 1805. Cloudy with some rain this morning at daylight. The wind blew from the E.N.E. We set out and proceeded on up the north side of this great river to a rock in the river. From there we crossed to the lower point of an ____ Island, passed between two islands to the main shore, and proceeded down the south side. We passed two inlets and halted below the second at an Indian village of nine large houses. These Indians live on an eminence behind an island, or a channel of the river not more than 300 yards wide. They live on fish, elk, and wapato roots, of which we bought a few at a high price. They call themselves Cat-tar-bets. (description)

We proceeded on about 8 miles and camped in a deep bend to the south. We had not been camped long before three Indians came in a canoe to trade wapato roots. We had rain all the day; all wet and disagreeable, and a bad place to camp. All around this great bend is high land, thickly timbered, brushy, and almost impossible to penetrate. We saw on an island below the village a place of deposit for the dead in canoes.

Great numbers of swans, geese, brant, ducks, and gulls are in this great bend, which is crowded with low islands covered with weeds, grass, etc., and overflowed every flood tide. The people of the last village are is-____. They ask immense prices for what they have to sell. Blue beads are their great trade; they are fond of clothes or blankets of blue, red, or brown. We are now descending to see if a favorable place should offer on the south side to winter, etc.

From a high point opposite a high island down the south side is S. 30° W. 6 miles to a point of low land opposite the upper point of the island; passed the lower point of the 1st island, marshy; at the upper point of two low islands opposite each other, at 4 miles.

Tuesday 26th November 1805. Cloudy with some rain this morning from 6 o'clock. Wind from the E.N.E. We set out early and crossed a short distance above the rock out in the river, and between some low marshy islands to the south side of the Columbia at a low bottom about 3 miles below Point Samuel. We proceeded near the south side, leaving the Seal Islands to our right and a marshy bottom to the left, 5 miles to the Calt-har-mar Village of nine large wood houses on a handsome elevated situation near the foot of a spur of the high land, behind a large low island separated from the southerly shore by a channel of about 200 yards wide. This nation appears to differ very little either in language, customs, dress, or appearance from the Chinooks and War-ci-a-cum. They live principally on fish and pappato; they also have other roots, and some elk meat.

We purchased some green fish and wappato, for which we gave immoderate prices. After dining on the fresh fish which we purchased, we proceeded on through a deep bend to the south and camped under a high hill, where we found much difficulty in procuring wood to burn, as it was raining hard, as it had been the greater part of the day. Soon after we camped, three Indians of the last town came in a canoe with wappato roots to sell to us, some of which we purchased with fishhooks. From the village quite around this bend to the west, the land is high and thickly timbered with pine, balsam, etc. A short distance below the Calt-har-mer Village, on the island which is opposite, I observed several canoes on scaffolds which contained their dead. As I did not examine this mode of disposing of the dead, I must refer it to a description hereafter.