JANUARY 19

we were visited today by two Clatsop men and a woman who brought for sale some Sea Otter skins of which we purchased one, giving in exchange the remainder of our blue beads consisting of 6 fathoms and about the same quantity of small white beads and a knife. we also purchased a small quantity of train oil for a pair of Brass
armbands and a hat for some fishinghooks.

these hats are of their own manufactory and are composed of Cedar bark and bear grass interwoven with the fingers and ornimented with varioius colours and figures, they are nearly waterproof, light, and I am convinced are much
more durable than either chip or straw. These hats form a small article of traffic with the Clatsops and Chinnooks who dispose of them to the whites. the form of the hat is that which was in vogue in the Ued States and great
Britain in the years 1800 & 1801 with a high crown reather larger at the top than where it joins the brim; the brim narrow or about 2 or 2˝ inches.

Several families of these people usually reside together in the same room; they appear to be the father & mother
and their sons with their son's wives and children; their provision seems to be in common and the greatest
harmoney appears to exist among them.

The old man is not always rispected as the head of the family, that duty most commonly devolves on one of the
young men. They have seldom more than one wife, yet the plurality of wives is not denyed them by their customs.

These families when ascociated form nations or bands of nations each acknowledging the authority of it's own chieftain who does not appear to be heridatiry, nor his power to extend further than a mear repremand for any
improper act of an individual; the creation of a chief depends upon the upright deportment of the individual & his ability and disposition to render service to thecommunity; and his authority or the deference paid him is in exact equilibrio with the popularity or voluntary esteem he has acquired among the individuals of his band or nation.