JOURNAL. 
215 
til at the heap or mass had something of the ap- 
pearance of a small coalpit on fire. An hour and an 
half was necessary to cook it in this way. The na- 
tives rem aitied at our camp all nig-ht. 
Thursday \5th. This was a fine morning, and 
^ome hunters went out early. The rest of the party 
were engaged making places of shelter, to defend 
Hthem from the stormy weather. Some had small 
sails to cover their little hovels, and others had to 
make frames and cover tliem with grass. Around 
<aur camp the plains have the appearance of a mea- 
dow before it is mowed, and affords abundance of 
food for our horses. Here we expect to remain a 
month before we can cross the mountains. The na- 
tives staid all day at our camp ; and one of them had 
round his neck a scalp of an Indian, with six thumbs 
tmd four fin^i-ers of other Indians he had killed in bat- 
tie, of the Sho-sho-ne, or Snake nation. The nation 
here the Cho-co-nish, is very numerous, as well as 
the other. These nations have been long at war and 
liestroyed a great many of each other in a few years 
past. 
From the Mandan nation to the Pacific ocean, the 
arms of the Indians are generally bows and arrows, 
tind the war-mallet. The war-mallet is a club with a 
large head of wood or stone; those of stone are 
generally covered with leather, and fastened to the 
end of*the club with thongs or straps of leather and 
the sinews of animals.* 
* The publisher has seen one of these stone heads, lately 
found 2i\i[ Hatfield^ the ftirm of Mr David Davis, three rniles 
fxom Pittsburgh on tiie Allegheny river. Itis of a i^ard species 
Df -stone and Vvcighs seven ounces. It is nearly spherical 
with a groove cut round to hold, as is supposed, the strap \ig 
which it is fastened to the club. Mr Gass says it is exactly 
^jke those he had seen, to the westw ard. There is ^>erhaps 
