only a few men left to guard the women and children.  They now set before them a small piece of buffaloe meat, some dried salmon, berries, and several kinds of roots.  Among these last is one which is round and much like an onion in appearance and sweet to the taste:  it is called quamash, and is eaten either in its natural state, or boiled into a kind of soup or made into a cake, which is then called pasheco.  After the long abstinence this was a sumptuous treat; we returned the kindness of the people by a few small presents, and then went on in company with one of the chiefs to a second village in the same plain, at the distance of two miles.  Here the party was treated with great kindness and passed the night.  The hunters were sent out, but though they saw some tracks of deer were not able to procure any thing.

We were detained till ten o’clock before we could collect our scattered horses; we then proceeded for two miles, when to our great joy we found the horse which captain Clarke had killed, and a note apprising us of his intention of going to the plains towards the southwest, and collect provisions by the time we reached him.  At one o’clock we halted on a small stream, and made a hearty meal of horse flesh.  On examination it now appeared that one of the horses was missing, and the man in whose charge he had been, was directed to return and search for him.  He came back in about two hours without having been able to find the horse; but as the load was too valuable to be lost, two of the best woodsmen were directed to continue the search while we proceeded.  Our general course was south 25 degrees west through a thick forest of large pine, which has fallen in many places, and very much obstructs the road.  After making about fifteen miles we encamped on a ridge where we could find but little grass and no water.  We succeeded, however, in procuring a little from a distance, and supped on the remainder of the horse.

On descending the heights of the mountains the soil becomes gradually more fertile, and the land through which we passed this evening, is of an excellent quality.  It has a dark gray soil, though very broken, and with large masses of gray free-stone above the ground in many places.  Among the vegetable productions we distinguished the alder, honeysuckle, and huckleberry, common in the United States, and a species of honeysuckle, known only westward of the Rocky mountains, which rises to the height of about four feet, and bears a white berry.  There is also a plant resembling the chokecherry, which grows in thick clumps eight or ten feet high, and bears a black berry with a single stone of a sweetish taste.  The arbor vitae too, is very common, and grows to a great size, being from two to six feet in diameter.

Saturday 21.  The free use of food, to which he had not been accustomed, made captain Clarke very sick both yesterday evening and during the whole of to-day.  He therefore sent out all the hunters and remained himself at the village, as well on account of his sickness as for the purpose of avoiding suspicion and collecting information from the Indians as to the route.