Next in importance to the building of a winter camp was the fixing of a place where salt could be made.

Salt is absolutely necessary for the comfort of man, and the supply brought out from the United States by the explorers was now nearly all gone.

They were provided with kettles in which sea-water could be boiled down and salt be made.

It would be needful to go to work at once, for the process of salt-making by boiling in ordinary kettles is slow and tedious; not only must enough for present uses be found, but a supply to last the party home again was necessary.

Accordingly, on the eighth of December the journal has this entry to show what was to be done:-- "In order, therefore, to find a place for making salt, and to examine the country further, Captain Clark set out with five men, and pursuing a course S.60'0 W., over a dividing ridge through thick pine timber, much of which bad fallen, passed the beads of two small brooks.