254 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



found upon them some excellent berries. We 

 encamped at six P.M., having come only six 

 miles and a half. Credit was then missing, 

 and he did not return during the night. We 

 supped off a single partridge and some tripe dz 

 roche; this unpalatable weed was now quite 

 nauseous to the whole party, and in several it 

 produced bowel complaints. Mr. Hood was the 

 greatest sufferer from this cause. This evening 

 we were extremely distressed, at discovering 

 that our improvident companions, since we left 

 Hood's River, had thrown away three of the 

 fishing-nets, and burnt the floats ; they knew we 

 had brought them to procure subsistence for the 

 party, when the animals should fail, and we could 

 scarcely believe the fact of their having wilfully 

 deprived themselves of this resource, especially 

 when we considered that most of them had passed 

 the greater part of their servitude in situations 

 where the nets alone had supplied them with food. 

 Being thus deprived of our principal resource, 

 that of fishing, and the men evidently getting 

 weaker every day, it became necessary to lighten 

 their burthens of every thing except ammunition, 

 clothing, and the instruments that were required 

 to find our way. I, therefore, issued directions to 

 deposit at this encampment the dipping needle, 

 azimuth compass, magnet, a large thermometer, 

 and a few books we had carried, having torn out 



