Fort Clatsop, salt works established — Patrick Gass: December 27, 1805

blew very hard up the river, and we remained here all day.
This is the first hunting ground we have had for a long time,
and some of our men went out. Part of the natives remained
with us ; but we cannot find out to what nation they belong.
We suppose them to be a band of the Flathead nation, as all
their heads are compressed into the same form ; though they
do not speak exactly the same language, but there is no great
difference, and this may be a dialect of the same. This sin-
gular and deforming operation is performed in infancy in the
following manner. A piece of board is placed against the
back of the head extending from the shoulders some distance
above it; another shorter piece extends from the eye brows
to the top of the first, and they are then bound together with
thongs or cords made of skins, so as to press back the fore-
head, make the head rise at the top, and force it out above
the ears. In the evening our hunters came in and had killed
4 deer and some squirrels. The wind blew hard all this day.