Early emigrants across the continent were so afflicted by these
insects that the air at times seemed full of gray clouds of them. It
was the custom of the wayfarers to build a "smudge," as it was called,
a low, smouldering fire of green boughs and brush, the dense smoke
from which (almost as annoying as the mosquitoes) would drive off their
persecutors as long, as the victims sat in the smoke. The sleeping tent
was usually cleared in this way before "turning in" at night, every
opening of the canvas being afterwards closed.
Captain Lewis, on the thirteenth of July, followed Captain Clark up the
river; crossing the stream to the north bank, with his six canoes and
all his baggage, he overtook the other party on the same day and found
them all engaged in boat-building.
"On his way he passed a very large Indian lodge, which was probably
designed as a great council-house; but it differed in its construction
from all that we had seen, lower down the Missouri or elsewhere. The
form of it was a circle two hundred and sixteen feet in circumference at
the base; it was composed of sixteen large cottonwood poles about fifty
feet long and at their thicker ends, which touched the ground, about the
size of a man's body. They were distributed at equal distances, except
that one was omitted to the cast, probably for the entrance. From the
circumference of this circle the poles converged toward the centre,
where they were united and secured by large withes of willow-brush.
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