Lewis: February 24, 1806

Monday February 24th 1806. Our sick are still recovering. Shannon and Labuishe (Labiche) returned in the forenoon; they had killed no elk and reported that they believe the elk have retired from their former haunts and gone further back into the country, a considerable distance from this place. This is very unwelcome information, for poor and inferior as the flesh of this animal is, it is our principal dependence for subsistence.

This evening we were visited by Comowooll the Clatsop chief and 12 men, women, and children of his nation. Drewyer (Drouillard) came as a passenger in their canoe, and brought with him two dogs. The chief and his party had brought for sale a sea otter skin, some hats, sturgeon, and a species of small fish which is now beginning to run, and is taken in great quantities in the Columbia River about 40 miles above us by means of skimming or scooping nets. On this page I have drawn the likeness of them as large as life; it is as perfect as I can make it with my pen and will serve to give a general idea of the fish.

The rays of the fins are bony but not sharp, though somewhat pointed. The small fin on the back next to the tail has no rays of bone, being a thin membranous pellicle. The fins next to the gills have eleven rays each. Those of the abdomen have eight each; those of the pinna ani have 20 and 2 half-formed in front. That of the back has eleven rays. All the fins are white in color. The back is of a bluish dusky color, and that of the lower part of the sides and belly is silvery white. There are no spots on any part. The first bone of the gills next behind the eye is of a bluish cast, and the second of a light gold color, nearly white. The pupil of the eye is black and the iris silver white. The under jaw exceeds the upper; and the mouth opens to great extent, folding like that of the herring. It has no teeth. The abdomen is obtuse and smooth, in this differing from the herring, shad, anchovy, etc. of the Malacopterygious Order and Class Clupea, to which, however, I think it more nearly allied than to any other, although it has not their acute and serrate abdomen, and the under jaw exceeding the upper. The scales of this little fish are so small and thin that without minute inspection you would suppose they had none. They are filled with roes of a pure white color and have scarcely any perceptible alimentary duct.

I find them best when cooked in Indian style, which is by roasting a number of them together on a wooden spit without any previous preparation whatever. They are so fat they require no additional sauce, and I think them superior to any fish I ever tasted, even more delicate and luscious than the white fish of the lakes, which have heretofore formed my standard of excellence among the fishes. I have heard the fresh anchovy much extolled, but I hope I shall be pardoned for believing this quite as good. The bones are so soft and fine that they form no obstruction in eating this fish.

We purchased all the articles which these people brought us. We allowed these people to remain all night, as it rained, the wind blew most violently, and they had their women and children with them; the latter being a sure pledge of their peaceful dispositions. The sturgeon which they brought us was also good of its kind. We have determined to send a party up the river to procure some of those fish, and another in some direction to hunt elk as soon as the weather will permit.