And, as always, they looked at the land and its peoples with the needs of an expanding American trade empire in mind. To continue their ethnography, the explorers would have to question Indians and court their chiefs. In the spruce and fir forests and marshlands around the fort, plants and animals new to eastern eyes required observation, description, and cataloging. The store of notes and maps from the outbound journey had to be consolidated. On the coast the expedition needed time to prepare itself for a demanding return across the continent. The reasons for raising Fort Clatsop seemed less compelling than those that had brought Fort Mandan to life. It was as if once reaching the Pacific the expedition lost a sense of direction and purpose. As the Corps of Discovery settled into winter quarters along the Netul (Lewis and Clark) River, William Clark described the site of Fort Clatsop as "the most eligable Situation for our purposes of any in its neighbourhood." But neither Clark nor his fellow explorers seemed quite able to fix those purposes clearly in mind.
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