Later in that day the party came to a Chopunnish house which was one hundred and fifty-six feet long and fifteen feet wide.  Thirty families were living in this big house, each family having its fire by itself burning on the earthen floor, along through the middle of the great structure.  The journal says:—­

“We arrived very hungry and weary, but could not purchase any provisions, except a small quantity of the roots and bread of the cows.  They had, however, heard of our medical skill, and made many applications for assistance, but we refused to do anything unless they gave us either dogs or horses to eat.  We soon had nearly fifty patients.  A chief brought his wife with an abscess on her back, and promised to furnish us with a horse to-morrow if we would relieve her.  Captain Clark, therefore, opened the abscess, introduced a tent, and dressed it with basilicon.  We also prepared and distributed some doses of flour of sulphur and cream of tartar, with directions for its use.  For these we obtained several dogs, but too poor for use, and therefore postponed our medical operations till the morning.  In the mean time a number of Indians, besides the residents of the village, gathered about us or camped in the woody bottom of the creek.”

It will be recollected that when the expedition was in this region (on the Kooskooskee), during the previous September, on their way westward, they left their horses with Chief Twisted-hair, travelling overland from that point.  They were now looking for that chief, and the journal says:—­

“About two o’clock we collected our horses and set out, accompanied by Weahkoonut, with ten or twelve men and a man who said he was the brother of Twisted-hair.  At four miles we came to a single house of three families, but could not procure provisions of any kind; and five miles further we halted for the night near another house, built like the rest, of sticks, mats, and dried hay, and containing six families.  It was now so difficult to procure anything to eat that our chief dependence was on the horse which we received yesterday for medicine; but to our great disappointment he broke the rope by which he was confined, made his escape, and left us supperless in the rain.”

Next day they met an Indian who brought them two canisters of powder, which they at once knew to be some of that which they had buried last autumn.  The Indian said that his dog had dug it up in the meadow by the river, and he had restored it to its rightful owners.  As a reward for his honesty, the captains gave him a flint and steel for striking fire; and they regretted that their own poverty prevented them from being more liberal to the man.