The two villages consist of about thirty double tents, and the inhabitants call themselves Chopunnish or Pierced-nose.  The chief drew a chart of the river, and explained, that a greater chief than himself, who governed this village and was called the Twisted-hair, was now fishing at the distance of half a day’s ride down the river:  his chart made the Kooskooskee fork a little below his camp, a second fork below, still further on a large branch flowed in on each side, below which the river passed the mountains:  here was a great fall of water, near which lived white people, from whom were procured the white beads and brass ornaments worn by the women.

A chief of another band made a visit this morning, and smoked with captain Clarke.  The hunters returned without having been able to kill any thing; captain Clarke purchased as much dried salmon, roots, and berries as he could, with the few articles he chanced to have in his pockets, and having sent them by one of the men and a hired Indian back to captain Lewis, he went on towards the camp of the Twisted-hair.  It was four o’clock before he set out, and the night soon came on; but having met an Indian coming from the river, they engaged him by a present of a neckcloth, to guide them to the Twisted-hair’s camp.  For twelve miles they proceeded through the plain before they reached the river hills, which are very high and steep.  The whole valley from these hills to the Rocky mountain is a beautiful level country, with a rich soil covered with grass:  there is, however, but little timber, and the ground is badly watered:  the plain is so much lower than the surrounding hills, or so much sheltered by them, that the weather is quite warm, while the cold of the mountains was extreme.  From the top of the river hills they proceeded down for three miles till they reached the water side, between eleven and twelve o’clock at night:  here we found a small camp of five squaws and three children, the chief himself being encamped, with two others, on a small island in the river:  the guide called to him and he soon came over.  Captain Clarke gave him a medal, and they smoked together till one o’clock.

We could not set out till eleven o’clock, because being obliged in the evening to loosen our horses to enable them to find subsistence, it is always difficult to collect them in the morning.  At that hour we continued along the ridge on which we had slept, and at a mile and a half reached a large creek running to our left, just above its junction with one of its branches.  We proceeded down the low grounds of this creek, which are level, wide, and heavily timbered, but turned to the right at the distance of two and a half miles, and began to pass the broken and hilly country; but the thick timber had fallen in so many places that we could scarcely make our way.  After going five miles we passed the creek on which captain Clarke had encamped during the night of the 19th, and continued five miles further over the same kind of road, till we came to the forks of a large creek.  We crossed the northern branch of this stream, and proceeded down it on the west side for a mile:  here we found a small plain where there was tolerable grass for the horses, and therefore remained during the night, having made fifteen miles on a course S. 30 degrees W.