from 5 Songs from the Mouth of the Columbia R.
by the Academic Challenge Team“...this dismal nitch where we have been confined for six days passed, without the possibility of proceeding on, returning to a better Situation, or get out to hunt, Scarce of provisions, and torrents of rain pouring on us all the time.”

William Clark, November 15th, 1805
EnlargeAnd so it went for those “6 days passed.” The Corps of Discovery was but only several miles from the Pacific Ocean, caught in a late autumn storm, unable to move forward. The event was well documented, as both Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wrote extensively about it in their journals, as did Joseph Whitehouse and Patrick Gass, the group’s carpenter.While the Corps was ill-prepared for such weather, the local Chinook were more than comfortable in the cold, harsh rain that makes its home at the mouth of the Columbia R. during the winter months. So much so that they crossed the River during the storm in their hand-made canoes to sell salmon to the Lewis and Clark gang, and then rowed back across.Next: from a Tower Overlooking Astoria