Fort Clatsop, salt works established — Patrick Gass: December 26, 1805

morning we left our camp and moved into our huts. At day
break all the men paraded and fired a round of small arms,
wishing the Commanding Officers a merry Christmas. In the
course of the day Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clarke collected
what tobacco remained and divided it among those who used
tobacco as a Christmas-gift; to the others they gave handker-
chiefs in lieu of it. We had no spirituous liquor to elevate
our spirits this Christmas; but of this we had but little need,
188 GASS’S JOURNAL OF THE
as we were all in very good health. Our living is not very
good ; meat is plenty, but of an ordinary quality, as the elk
are poor in this part of the country. We have no kind of
provisions but meat, and we are without salt to season that.
The 26th, 27th and 28th, were cloudy with rain. We found
our huts smoked ; there being no chimnies in them except in
the officers’ rooms. The men were therefore employed, ex-
cept some hunters who went out, in making chimnies to the
huts. In the evening of the 27th we were informed that a
large fish, answering to the description of a whale, was driven
upon shore. In the forenoon of the 28th six men started for
the seashore to make salt, as we have none in the fort. Two
hunters returned, having killed a deer, and three went out to
hunt.