“The men of the village now collected and began to gamble.  The most common game was one in which one of the company was banker, and played against all the rest.  He had a piece of bone, about the size of a large bean, and having agreed with any individual as to the value of the stake, would pass the bone from one hand to the other with great dexterity, singing at the same time to divert the attention of his adversary; then holding it in his hands, his antagonist was challenged to guess in which of them the bone was, and lost or won as he pointed to the right or wrong hand.  To this game of hazard they abandoned themselves with great ardor; sometimes everything they possess is sacrificed to it; and this evening several of the Indians lost all the beads which they had with them.  This lasted for three hours; when, Captain Clark appearing disposed to sleep, the man who had been most attentive, and whose name was Cuskalah, spread two new mats near the fire, ordered his wife to retire to her own bed, and the rest of the company dispersed at the same time.  Captain Clark then lay down, but the violence with which the fleas attacked him did not leave his rest unbroken.”

Next morning, Captain Clark walked along the seashore, and he observed that the Indians were walking up and down, examining the shore and the margin of a creek that emptied here.  The narrative says:—­

“He was at a loss to understand their object till one of them came to him, and explained that they were in search of any fish which might have been thrown on shore and left by the tide, adding in English, ’sturgeon is very good.’  There is, indeed, every reason to believe that these Clatsops depend for their subsistence, during the winter, chiefly on the fish thus casually thrown on the coast.  After amusing himself for some time on the beach, he returned towards the village, and shot on his way two brant.  As he came near the village, one of the Indians asked him to shoot a duck about thirty steps distant:  he did so, and, having accidentally shot off its head, the bird was brought to the village, when all the Indians came round in astonishment.  They examined the duck, the musket, and the very small bullets, which were a hundred to the pound, and then exclaimed, Clouch musque, waket, commatax musquet:  Good musket; do not understand this kind of musket.  They now placed before him their best roots, fish, and syrup, after which he attempted to purchase a sea-otter skin with some red beads which he happened to have about him; but they declined trading, as they valued none except blue or white beads.  He therefore bought nothing but a little berry-bread and a few roots, in exchange for fish-hooks, and then set out to return by the same route he had come.  He was accompanied by Cuskalah and his brother as far as the third creek, and then proceeded to the camp through a heavy rain.  The whole party had been occupied during his absence in cutting down trees to make huts, and in hunting.”