Portaging Cascades of the Columbia upstream — Patrick Gass: April 8, 1806

so hard from the northeast that it was impossible to go on;
and about 8 o’clock the swells ran so high that we had to un-
load our canoes, and haul some of them out of the water to
prevent their being injured. Some of the men are complain-
ing of rheumatick pains; which are to be expected from the
wet and cold we suffered last winter, during which from the
4th of November 1805 to the 25th of March 1806, there were
not more than twelve days in which it did not rain, and of
these but six were clear. Two hunters, who had gone out in
the morning, returned, but had killed nothing, except a beau-
tiful small duck.
212 GASS’S JOURNAL OF THE
CHAP. XIX.
EDNESDAY gth. The morning was pleasant ; we there-
fore loaded our canoes and proceeded on till 11 o’clock
when we stopped at a large Indian village on the north side;
but a number of the huts were unoccupied. They are of the
Al-e-is nation. At the time we halted 3 canoe loads of them
were setting out for the falls to fish. We took breakfast here
and bought 5 dogs from them. The women all wear the small
leather bandage, but are quite naked otherwise, except what
is covered by the small robe they wear round their shoulders.
In the afternoon the weather became cloudy and some rain
fell. In the evening we came to a large rapid at the lower end
of Strawberry island; where there are a number of the natives
about settling on the north side. Here we crossed over, after
buying two dogs from them, and encamped behind the island.
Some rain continued falling.