Friday, October 11, 1805. This morning the wind was from the east, and the weather cloudy. We set out early, and at the distance of a mile and a half reached a point of rocks in a bend of the river towards the left, near to which was an old Indian house, and a meadow on the opposite bank. Here the hills came down towards the water, and formed by the rocks, which have fallen from their sides, a rapid over which we dragged the canoes. We passed, a mile and a half further, two Indian lodges in a bend towards the right, and at six miles from our camp of last evening reached the mouth of a brook on the left. Just above this stream we stopped for breakfast at a large encampment of Indians on the same side: we soon began to trade with them for a stock of provisions, and were so fortunate as to purchase seven dogs and all the fish they would spare; while this traffic was going on, we observed a vapour bath or sweating house in a different form from that used on the frontiers of the United States, or in the Rocky mountains. It was a hallow square of six or eight feet deep, formed in the river bank by damming up with mud the other three sides, and covering the whole completely except an aperture about two feet wide at the top. The bathers descend by this hole, taking with them a number of heated stones, and jugs of water; and after being seated round the room, throw the water on the stones till the steam becomes of a temperature sufficiently high for their purposes. The baths of the Indians in the Rocky mountains is of different sizes, the most common being made of mud and sticks like an oven, but the mode of raising the steam is exactly the same. Among both these nations it is very uncommon for a man to bathe alone, he is generally accompanied by one or sometimes several of his acquaintances; indeed it is so essentially a social amusement, that to decline going in to bathe when invited by a friend is one of the highest indignities which can be offered to him. The Indians on the frontiers generally use a bath which will accommodate only one person, and is formed of a wickered work of willows about four feet high, arched at the top, and covered with skins. In this the patient sits till by means of the heated stones and water he has perspired sufficiently. Almost universally these baths are in the neighbourhood of running water, into which the Indians plunge immediately on coming out of the vapour bath, and sometimes return again, and subject themselves to a second perspiration. This practice is, however, less frequent among our neighbouring nations than those to the westward. This bath is employed either for pleasure or for health, and is used indiscriminately for rheumatism, venereal, or in short for all kinds of diseases.