CHAPTER XI.

CONTENTS.

SCIENTIFIC OPERATIONS AT NISQUALLY FACILITIES TENDERED BY MR. OGDEN MR. DRAYTON ORDERED TO ACCOMPANY HIM - MR. DRAYTON'S PREVIOUS RESEARCHES-PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION - BOATS-PACKAGES AND MODE OF TRANSPORTATION-TRADE AT MR. OGDEN'S POSTS-DEPARTURE OF MR. DRAYTON FROM VANCOUVER-CASCADES-CASCADE MOUNTAINS - PORTAGES-GUMMING THE BOATS -SUNKEN FOREST RATTLESNAKES — METHODIST MISSION - INDIANS WITHIN ITS SPHERE-THE DALLES-MODE OF CURING FISH THERE-MODE OF FISHING - DESCRIPTION OF THE DALLES-SYSTEM OF THE HUDSON BAY COMPANYPORTAGE AT THE DALLES-MISSIONARY EFFORTS-IMPROVIDENCE OF THE INDIANS DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY-ITS CLIMATE-WISHAM-CHUTES RIVER-JOHN DAY'S RIVER-END OF THE WOODS-HIEROGLYPHIC ROCKS-BURIAL-PLACE-GRAND RAPIDS-WINDMILL ROCK-ARRIVAL OF MR. DRAYTON AT WALLA WALLA-CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF THE COMPANY'S SERVANTS-SEPARATION FROM MR. OGDEN -VISIT TO DR. WHITMAN MISSIONARY STATIONS OF THE AMERICAN BOARDWAIILAPTU-GRANDE RONDE-FLAG OF PEACE-CONDITION OF THE MISSIONARIES -CLIMATE-TREES PROSPECTS OF THE MISSION-THEIR SCHOOL-INDIAN FARMING -BLUE MOUNTAINS-HOT WINDS-MODE OF FISHING AT WALLAWALLA-ARRIVAL OF INDIANS-FALL OF THE COLUMBIA - WALLAWALLA AND NEZ PERCE TRIBESTHEIR MODE OF DRESSING SKINS-MODE OF CARRYING THEIR CHILDREN-MEDICINEWOMAN-CUSTOMS IN RELATION TO FEMALES GREAT FALLS OF THE COLUMBIACOMPARISON OF THE COLUMBIA AND SNAKE RIVERS-MR. DRAYTON LEAVES WALLAWALLA-INDIANS AT PRAYER-EXTORTION BY THE INDIANS THEIR ATTEMPTS AT THEFT-RETURN OF MR. DRAYTON TO VANCOUVER.

CHAPTER XI.

WALLA WALLA.

1841.

On my return to Nisqually, I found that news had been received from the various surveying and exploring parties, all of which it was reported were advancing rapidly in the execution of their duties. The preparations for the scientific operations, which had been left to the charge of Lieutenant Carr, were all completed, and the two log houses had been built, in which we now began to perform the pendulum experiments, and make astronomic observations. In these we were engaged until the 4th of July. As the details of them will be given in another place, I shall only advert here to the operations which I had entrusted to Mr. Drayton, and which will form the subject of the present chapter.

It was stated in the preceding chapter, that through Mr. Ogden's kindness, a passage was offered up the Columbia river as far as Wallawalla. It had been my original intention to despatch a party from the Peacock in this direction, to cross the Rocky Mountains to the head waters of Yellowstone river; and I had engaged a Mr. Rogers to accompany it. Orders for the purpose had been prepared, and left to be delivered to Captain Hudson when he should arrive.

I now, however, began to apprehend that some serious accident had happened to that vessel, and I deemed it important to secure at all events, the examination of so interesting a part of this country, particularly when it could be performed under such favourable circumstances as those offered by Mr. Ogden. Mr. Drayton was therefore detached to make this jaunt, and to his industry and observation I am indebted for many of the facts about to be detailed. For others (377)

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of them I have to acknowledge my obligation to the missionaries, and the officers of the Hudson Bay Company.

Previous to the departure of the brigade, Mr. Drayton had made many collections in natural history. After I left him, the weather continued very rainy for several days, and the Columbia in consequence began to rise again rapidly: the low prairies were overflowed, and the wheat in many places was injured. To show the porous nature of the soil, I will mention that the well at Vancouver rises and falls with the river, although it is a quarter of a mile from the bank. This is not the case in any other place in the territory where wells are sunk; but I have little doubt the same thing would occur on any of the low prairies of the Columbia, for the soil of all of them seems very similar. At Vancouver they use the river in preference to the well-water, though they do not consider the latter as unwholesome.

Mr. Drayton obtained in the mill-pond, specimens of a beautiful spotted trout, which is abundant there. They take the bait readily, and were caught with pieces of dried salmon: they feed upon insects, and small white moths are their favourite bait, at which they are seen to spring most greedily.

Until the 26th, repairs were making to the boats, and preparations were going on for embarking the goods. The shape of these boats has been before described: they have great strength and buoyancy, carry three tons weight, and have a crew of eight men, besides a padroon. they are thirty feet long and five and a half feet beam, sharp at both ends, clinker-built, and have no knees. In building them, flat timbers of oak are bent to the requisite shape by steaming; they are bolted to a flat keel, at distances of a foot from each other: the planks are of cedar, and generally extend the whole length of the boat. The gunwale is of the same kind of wood, but the rowlocks are of birch. peculiarity in the construction of these boats is, that they are only riveted at each end with a strong rivet, and being well gummed, they have no occasion for nailing. They answer, and indeed are admirably adapted to, all the purposes for which they are intended; are so light as to be easily transported over the portages by their crews, and in case of accident are easily repaired.

The

The goods embarked for the supply of the northern posts are all done up carefully in bales of ninety pounds each, and consist of groceries, clothing, flour, powder, bullets, &c. It may readily be imagined that the different packages vary very materially in size, from a few inches square to two feet. This equal division of the weight is necessary, in consequence of the numerous portages they have to make, as well as convenient in forming packs for horses, which they take at

Okonagan for a journey to Thompson river, which takes twenty days to accomplish.

Mr. Ogden is generally six months of every year travelling to and from his post on the south end of Stuart's Lake, called Fort St. James, in latitude 54° N. He leaves it early in the spring, and returns in the fall of each year. Before he departs, he fits out his summer trappers, and on his return those for the winter's campaign. He brings down with him the produce of a year's hunting. This post is the most profitable of all the sections west of the mountains. The average cost of a beaver-skin is about twenty-five cents, and when it reaches Vancouver it has enhanced in price to two dollars and fifty cents. The amount of furs brought down by Mr. Ogden yearly will net in London £50,000, a fact which will give some idea of the value of this trade.

In setting out on his journey, Mr. Ogden's practice, as well as that of all the Company's parties, is to go only a few miles the first day, in order that they may discover if any thing has been neglected, and be able to return for it. For this reason their first encampment was at the saw-mill. Their brigade consisted of nine boats, rowed by sixty voyageurs, eight of whom had their Indian wives with them. Besides these were Mr. and Mrs. M'Kinley, (of the Hudson Bay Co.,) who was to take charge of the Wallawalla Fort, and a Mr. Cameron, also of the Company, who was on his way to Mr. Black's station. The boats take each sixty packages, excepting the trader, which is Mr. Ogden's own boat, and carries only forty. The boatmen are Canadians, excepting about one-fourth, who are Iroquois Indians, all strong, active, and hardy men. They are provided only with a square sail, as the wind blows generally either directly up or down the river.

On the 27th June, they were off at early dawn, took their breakfast at Prairie du Thé, and reached the Company's fishery, at the Cascades, at 6 P. M., where they encamped. This is the head of ship navigation, where the river takes a turn northward, and for upwards of two miles is comparatively narrow-four hundred and fifty yards wide. It falls in this distance about forty feet, and the whole body of water drives through this narrow channel with great impetuosity, forming high waves and fearful whirlpools, too dangerous to be encountered by any boat. When the river is low, these rapids are sometimes passed by skilful boatmen, but there have been many lives lost in the attempt.

The country bordering on the river is low until the Cascades are approached, with the exception of several high basaltic bluffs. Some of them are two hundred feet high, pointed like turreted castles.

An old Indian, called Slyboots, made his call upon Mr. Ogden for his annual present, consisting of some tobacco and a shirt. This