By the word "cows," in this sentence, we must understand that the story-teller meant cowas, a root eaten by the Indians and white explorers in that distant region. It is a knobbed, irregular root, and when cooked resembles the ginseng. At this place the party met some of the Indians whom Captain Clark had treated for slight diseases, when they passed that way, the previous autumn. They bad sounded the praises of the white men and their medicine, and others were now waiting to be treated in the same manner. The Indians were glad to pay for their treatment, and the white men were not sorry to find this easy method of adding to their stock of food, which was very scanty at this time. The journal sagely adds, "We cautiously abstain from giving them any but harmless medicines; and as we cannot possibly do harm, our prescriptions, though unsanctioned by the faculty, may be useful, and are entitled to some remuneration." Very famous and accomplished doctors might say the same thing of their practice. But the explorers did not meet with pleasant acquaintances only; in the very next entry is recorded this disagreeable incident: