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Show 468 ]Jewis aml Cla1•ke's Expedition All these Indians belong to the Chopunnish nation, and lin~ in tents of an oblong form, covered with flat roofs. At its mouth Lewis's river is about two hundred and Jifty yards widc, and its water is of a greenish blue colour. The Kooskoosk(>e, whose waters are clear as <'·rystal, one hundred and fifty yards in width, and after the union the river enlarges to the space of three hundred yards: at th~ point of the union is an Indian cabin, and in Lewis's river a small island. The Chopunnish or Pierced-nose nation, who reside on the Koosl,ooskcc and Lewis's rivers, are in person stout, portly, well-looking men: the women at·e small, with good features, and generally l1andsome, though the complexion of both sexes is dat·kcr than that of the. Tushepaws. In dress they resemble that nation, being fond of displayingtbe. ir oruaments. 'I'hc buffaloc Ol' elk-skin robe decorated with beads. sea-shells, chiefly mother-of-pearl, attached to an otter-skin collat• and hung in the hait·, which falls in ft·ont in two queues; feathers, Jla.ints of ditft•rent kinds, principally white, gt·een, and light blue, all or which they find in their own eountt·y: th~sc at·c ti-Ac chief or·naments they use. In the winter they weat· a short shia·t of dress..ed skins, long painted leggings and moccasins, and a plait of twisted grass round the netlk. 'I'be dress of the women is moi'C simple, consisting of a long shil·t of argalia or ihex skin, reaching down to the an· kle!!! without a girdle: to this arc ti£'d little pieces of brass and shells and other. small articles; but the head is not at all ornamented. The dress of the female is indeed more modest, and more studiously so than any we have obsel'Ved, though the other sex is careless of the indelicacy of exposure. The Chotmnnish have very few amusements, for their life is 1,ainful and laborious; and all their exertions are neees~ ary to earn even their pt·ecarious sul,lsistcnce. During Up the .Missouri. ~69 the summer and autumn tht>y are busily occupied in fishing for salmon, and collecting their winter store of roots. In the winter they hunt the deer on snow shoes over the plains, and towards spring cross the mountains to the Missouri for the purpose of trafficking for buffaloe robes. The inconveniences of that comfortless life are increased by frequent encounters with their enemies from the west, who drive them over the mountains witl1 the loss of their horses, and sometimes the lives of many of the nation. Though origi· nally the same people, their dialect varies very perceptibly from that of the Tushepaws: their treatment to us differed much from the kind and disinterested services of the Sbosbonees: they are indeed selfish and avaricious; they part very reluctantly with every at•ticle of food or clothing; and while they expect a recompense for every service however small, do not concern themselves about recipt·ocating any presents we may give them. They are generally healthy-the only disorders which we have had occasion to remark being of a scrophulous kind, and for these, as well as for the amusement or those who are in good health, hot and cold bathing is vet·y commonly used. The soil of these prairies is of a light yellow clay intermixed with small smooth grass: it is barren, and pt·oduces little more than a beat·ded grass about th1·ce inches high, and a prickly pear. of' whid1 we now found tht·ee species: the first is of the broad-leafed kind, l'Otnmon to the Missouri. The second has the leaf of a globulm· form, and is also frequent on the uppet· part of the :Missouri, particularly after it enters the Rocky mountains. The third is pe· cular to this countt·y, and is muth more inconvenient than the other two: it cQnsists of small thick leaves of a cil·ettlar form, which grow from the margin of each other as in the broad-leafed pear of the Missouri: these leaves arc armed with a greater number of thorns, which arc stronger, and |