This was the occupation of all hands for several days, notwithstanding the discomfort of the continual downpour.  Many of the men were ill from the effects of sleeping and living so constantly in water.  Under date of December 12, the journal has this entry:—­

“We continued to work in the rain at our houses.  In the evening there arrived two canoes of Clatsops, among whom was a principal chief, called Comowol.  We gave him a medal and treated his companions with great attention; after which we began to bargain for a small sea-otter skin, some wappatoo-roots, and another species of root called shanataque.  We readily perceived that they were close dealers, stickled much for trifles, and never closed the bargain until they thought they had the advantage.  The wappatoo is dear, as they themselves are obliged to give a high price for it to the Indians above.  Blue beads are the articles most in request; the white occupy the next place in their estimation; but they do not value much those of any other color.  We succeeded at last in purchasing their whole cargo for a few fish-hooks and a small sack of Indian tobacco, which we had received from the Shoshonees.”

The winter camp was made up of seven huts, and, although it was not so carefully fortified as was the fort in the Mandan country (during the previous winter), it was so arranged that intruders could be kept out when necessary.  For the roofs of these shelters they were provided with “shakes” split out from a species of pine which they called “balsam pine,” and which gave them boards, or puncheons, or shakes, ten feet long and two feet wide, and not more than an inch and a half thick.  By the sixteenth of December their meat-house was finished, and their meat, so much of which had been spoiled for lack of proper care, was cut up in small pieces and hung under cover.  They had been told by the Indians that very little snow ever fell in that region, and the weather, although very, very wet, was mild and usually free from frost.  They did have severe hailstorms and a few flurries of snow in December but the rain was a continual cause of discomfort.  Of the trading habits of the Clatsops the journal has this to say:—­

“Three Indians came in a canoe with mats, roots, and the berries of the sacacommis.  These people proceed with a dexterity and finesse in their bargains which, if they have not learned it from their foreign visitors, may show how nearly allied is the cunning of savages to the little arts of traffic.  They begin by asking double or treble the value of what they have to sell, and lower their demand in proportion to the greater or less degree of ardor or knowledge of the purchaser, who, with all his management, is not able to procure the article for less than its real value, which the Indians perfectly understand.  Our chief medium of trade consists of blue and white beads, files,—­with which they sharpen their tools,—­fish-hooks, and tobacco; but of all these articles blue beads and tobacco are the most esteemed.”