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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Columbia River, by William Denison Lyman
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Columbia River
+       Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce
+
+Author: William Denison Lyman
+
+Release Date: April 6, 2012 [EBook #39388]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLUMBIA RIVER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  The Columbia River
+
+  Its History, Its Myths,
+  Its Scenery, Its Commerce
+
+
+  By William Denison Lyman
+  Professor of History in Whitman College,
+  Walla Walla, Washington
+
+
+  _With 80 Illustrations and a Map_
+
+
+  G. P. Putnam's Sons
+  New York and London
+  The Knickerbocker Press
+  1909
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1909
+  BY
+  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+  The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+  TO MY PARENTS
+  Horace Lyman and Mary Denison Lyman
+  PIONEERS OF 1849, WHO BORE THEIR PART IN LAYING THE
+  FOUNDATIONS OF CIVILIZATION UPON THE BANKS OF
+  THE COLUMBIA, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED
+  BY THE AUTHOR
+
+
+
+
+    I see the living tide roll on,
+    It crowns with rosy towers
+    The icy capes of Labrador,
+    The Spaniard's land of flowers;
+    It streams beyond the splintered ridge
+    That parts the northern showers.
+    From eastern rock to sunset wave,
+    The Continent is ours.
+                              HOLMES.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+As one of the American Waterways series, this volume is designed to be a
+history and description of the Columbia River. The author has sought to
+convey to his reader a lively sense of the romance, the heroism, and the
+adventure which belong to this great stream and the parts of the
+North-west about it, and he has aimed to breathe into his narrative
+something of the spirit and sentiment--a spirit and sentiment more easily
+recognised than analysed--which we call "Western." With this end in view,
+his treatment of the subject has been general rather than detailed, and
+popular rather than recondite. While he has spared no pains to secure
+historical accuracy, he has not made it a leading aim to settle
+controverted points, or to present the minutiae of historical research and
+criticism. In short, the book is rather for the general reader than for
+the specialist. The author hopes so to impress his readers with the
+majesty of the Columbia as to fill their minds with a longing to see it
+face to face.
+
+Frequent reference in the body of the book to authorities renders it
+unnecessary to name them here. Suffice it to say that the author has
+consulted the standard works of history and description dealing with
+Oregon--the old Oregon--and its River, and from the voluminous matter
+there gathered has selected the facts that best combine to make a
+connected and picturesque narrative. He has treated the subject
+topically, but there is a general progression throughout, and the
+endeavour has been to find a natural jointure of chapter to chapter and
+era to era.
+
+While the book has necessarily been based largely on other books, it may
+be said that the author has derived his chief inspiration from his own
+observations along the shores of the River and amid the mountains of
+Oregon and Washington, where his life has mainly been spent, and from
+familiar conversations in the cabins of pioneers, or at camp-fires of
+hunters, or around Indian tepees, or in the pilot-houses of steamboats. In
+such ways and places one can best catch the spirit of the River and its
+history.
+
+The author gladly takes this opportunity of making his grateful
+acknowledgments to Prof. F. G. Young, of Oregon University, for his
+kindness in reading the manuscript and in making suggestions which his
+full knowledge and ripe judgment render especially valuable. He wishes
+also to express his warmest thanks to Mr. Harvey W. Scott, editor of the
+_Oregonian_, for invaluable counsel. Similar gratitude is due to Prof.
+Henry Landes of Washington University for important assistance in regard
+to some of the scientific features of the first chapter.
+
+W. D. L.
+
+  WHITMAN COLLEGE,
+    WALLA WALLA, WASH.,
+      1909.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+
+  PART I.--THE HISTORY
+
+  CHAPTER I
+    THE LAND WHERE THE RIVER FLOWS                                       3
+
+  CHAPTER II
+    TALES OF THE FIRST WHITE MEN ALONG THE COAST                        33
+
+  CHAPTER III
+    HOW ALL NATIONS SOUGHT THE RIVER FROM THE SEA AND HOW THEY
+    FOUND IT                                                            43
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+    FIRST STEPS ACROSS THE WILDERNESS IN SEARCH OF THE RIVER            69
+
+  CHAPTER V
+    THE FUR-TRADERS, THEIR BATEAUX, AND THEIR STATIONS                  98
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+    THE COMING OF THE MISSIONARIES TO THE TRIBES OF THE RIVER          136
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+    THE ERA OF THE PIONEERS, THEIR OX-TEAMS, AND THEIR FLATBOATS       159
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+    CONFLICT OF NATIONS FOR POSSESSION OF THE RIVER                    179
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+    THE TIMES OF TOMAHAWK AND FIREBRAND                                202
+
+  CHAPTER X
+    WHEN THE "FIRE-CANOES" TOOK THE PLACE OF THE LOG-CANOES            234
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+    ERA OF THE MINER, THE COWBOY, THE FARMER, THE BOOMER, AND THE
+    RAILROAD-BUILDER                                                   249
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+    THE PRESENT AGE OF EXPANSION AND WORLD COMMERCE                    265
+
+
+  PART II.--A JOURNEY DOWN THE RIVER
+
+  CHAPTER I
+    IN THE HEART OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES                               273
+
+  CHAPTER II
+    THE LAKES FROM THE ARROW LAKES TO CHELAN                           290
+
+  CHAPTER III
+    IN THE LAND OF WHEAT-FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN                    313
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+    WHERE RIVER AND MOUNTAIN MEET, AND THE TRACES OF THE BRIDGE
+    OF THE GODS                                                        332
+
+  CHAPTER V
+    A SIDE TRIP TO SOME OF THE GREAT SNOW-PEAKS                        352
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+    THE LOWER RIVER AND THE OCEAN TIDES                                374
+
+
+  INDEX                                                                399
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                      PAGE
+
+  ST. PETER'S DOME, COLUMBIA RIVER, 2300 FEET HIGH          _Frontispiece_
+    Copyright, Kiser Photograph Co., 1902.
+
+  MOUNT ADAMS FROM THE SOUTH                                            74
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  CAPT. ROBERT GRAY                                                     76
+
+  THE "COLUMBIA REDIVIVA"                                               76
+
+  MOUNT HOOD FROM LOST LAKE                                             82
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  ELIOT GLACIER, MT. HOOD                                               84
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  ASTORIA IN 1845                                                      116
+    From an old print.
+
+  ASTORIA, LOOKING UP AND ACROSS THE COLUMBIA RIVER                    116
+    Photo. by Woodfield.
+
+  ONE OF THE LAGOONS OF THE UPPER COLUMBIA RIVER, NEAR GOLDEN B. C.    120
+    Photo. by C. F. Yates, Golden.
+
+  SADDLE MOUNTAIN, OR SWALLALOCHORT NEAR ASTORIA, FAMOUS IN INDIAN
+  MYTH                                                                 120
+    Photo. by Woodfield.
+
+  STEAMER "BEAVER," THE FIRST STEAMER ON THE PACIFIC, 1836             124
+
+  PORTLAND, OREGON, IN 1851                                            124
+    From an old print.
+
+  GRAVE OF MARCUS WHITMAN AND HIS ASSOCIATE MARTYRS AT WAIILATPU       210
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
+
+  CAYUSE BABIES--1                                                     212
+    Copyright by Lee Moorehouse, 1898.
+
+  CAYUSE BABIES--2                                                     212
+    Copyright by Lee Moorehouse, 1898.
+
+  COL. B. F. SHAW, WHO WON THE BATTLE OF GRANDE RONDE IN 1856          222
+    By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
+
+  FORT SHERIDAN ON THE GRANDE RONDE, BUILT BY PHILIP SHERIDAN IN
+  1855                                                                 224
+    By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
+
+  TULLUX HOLLIQUILLA, A WARM SPRINGS INDIAN CHIEF, FAMOUS IN THE
+  MODOC WAR AS A SCOUT FOR U. S. TROOPS                                228
+    By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
+
+  HALLAKALLAKEEN (EAGLE WING) OR JOSEPH, THE NEZ PERCE CHIEF           230
+    By T. W. Tolman.
+
+  CAMP OF CHIEF JOSEPH ON THE NESPILEM, WASH.                          232
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
+
+  TIRZAH TRASK, A UMATILLA INDIAN GIRL--TAKEN AS AN IDEAL OF
+  SACAJAWEA                                                            234
+    Photo. by Lee Moorehouse, Pendleton.
+
+  OREGON PIONEER IN HIS CABIN                                          256
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  OLD PORTAGE RAILROAD AT CASCADES IN 1860                             258
+
+  A LOG-BOOM DOWN THE RIVER FOR SAN FRANCISCO                          258
+    Photo. by Woodfield.
+
+  LUMBER MILL AND STEAMBOAT LANDING AT GOLDEN, B. C.                   260
+    Photo. by C. F. Yates.
+
+  A TYPICAL LUMBER CAMP                                                262
+    Photo. by Trueman.
+
+  A LOGGING RAILROAD, NEAR ASTORIA                                     264
+    Photo. by Woodfield.
+
+  NATURAL BRIDGE, KICKING HORSE OR WAPTA RIVER, AND MT. STEPHEN,
+  B. C.                                                                276
+    Photo. by C. F. Yates.
+
+  SUNRISE ON COLUMBIA RIVER, NEAR WASHOUGAL                            276
+    Copyright, Kiser Photograph Co., 1902.
+
+  LAKE WINDERMERE, UPPER COLUMBIA, WHERE DAVID THOMPSON'S FORT
+  WAS BUILT IN 1810                                                    280
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  MT. BURGESS AND EMERALD LAKE, ONE OF THE SOURCES OF THE WAPTA
+  RIVER, B. C.                                                         282
+    Photo. by C. F. Yates.
+
+  BONNINGTON FALLS IN KOOTENAI RIVER, NEAR NELSON                      284
+    Photo. by Allan Lean.
+
+  BRIDGE CREEK, A TRIBUTARY OF LAKE CHELAN, WASH.                      286
+    Photo. by F. N. Kneeland, Northampton, Mass.
+
+  KOOTENAI LAKE, FROM PROCTOR, B. C.                                   288
+    Photo. by Allan Lean, Nelson.
+
+  LOWER ARROW LAKE, B. C.                                              290
+    Photo. by Allan Lean, Nelson.
+
+  BRIDAL VEIL FALLS ON COLUMBIA RIVER                                  292
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  SHOSHONE FALLS, IN SNAKE RIVER, 212 FEET HIGH                        294
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  LAKE PEND OREILLE, IDAHO                                             296
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  LAKE COEUR D'ALENE, IDAHO                                            296
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  THE "SHADOWY ST. JOE," IDAHO                                         298
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  ON THE COEUR D'ALENE RIVER, IDAHO                                    300
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  GORGE OF CHELAN RIVER, THE OUTLET OF LAKE CHELAN                     302
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
+
+  HEAD OF LAKE CHELAN--LOOKING UP STEHEKIN CANYON                      304
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  CASCADE PASS AT HEAD OF STEHEKIN RIVER, WASH.                        306
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
+
+  DOUBTFUL LAKE, CASCADE RANGE, WASHINGTON, NEAR LAKE CHELAN           308
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane, Wash.
+
+  HORSESHOE BASIN THROUGH A ROCK GAP, STEHEKIN CANYON                  310
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  LAKE CHELAN                                                          312
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  A HARVEST OUTFIT, DAYTON, WASH.                                      314
+    _Sunset Magazine._
+
+  A COMBINED HARVESTER, NEAR WALLA WALLA                               314
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
+
+  INLAND EMPIRE SYSTEM'S POWER PLANT, NEAR SPOKANE, 20,000
+  HORSE-POWER                                                          316
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  LOWER SPOKANE FALLS                                                  316
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  CANYON OF THE STEHEKIN, NEAR LAKE CHELAN                             318
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  MEMORIAL BUILDING, WHITMAN COLLEGE, WALLA WALLA                      320
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
+
+  STARTING THE PLOUGHS IN THE WHEAT LAND, WALLA WALLA, WASH.           322
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman, Walla Walla.
+
+  ON THE HISTORIC WALLA WALLA RIVER                                    324
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
+
+  BLALOCK FRUIT RANCH OF A THOUSAND ACRES AT WALLA WALLA, WASH.        326
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
+
+  WITCH'S HEAD, NEAR OLD WISHRAM VILLAGE. THE INDIAN SUPERSTITION
+  IS THAT THESE EYES WILL FOLLOW ANY UNFAITHFUL WOMAN                  328
+    By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
+
+  CABBAGE ROCK, FOUR MILES NORTH OF THE DALLES                         330
+    Photo. by Lee Moorehouse, Pendleton.
+
+  EAGLE ROCK, JUST ABOVE SHOSHONE FALLS IN SNAKE RIVER                 332
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  STEHEKIN CANYON, 5000 FEET DEEP                                      334
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  STEAMER "DALLES CITY," DESCENDING THE CASCADES OF THE COLUMBIA       336
+
+  MEMALOOSE ISLAND, COLUMBIA RIVER                                     338
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  HORSESHOE BASIN NEAR LAKE CHELAN, WASH.                              340
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
+
+  CASTLE ROCK, COLUMBIA RIVER                                          342
+    Copyright, Kiser Photograph Co., 1902.
+
+  THE LYMAN GLACIER AND GLACIER LAKE IN NORTH STAR PARK, NEAR
+  LAKE CHELAN                                                          344
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  HUNTERS ON LAKE CHELAN, WITH THEIR SPOILS                            346
+    Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
+
+  A MORNING'S CATCH ON THE TOUCHET, NEAR DAYTON, WASH.                 346
+    _Sunset Magazine._
+
+  ONEONTA GORGE--LOOKING IN                                            348
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  CAPE HORN, COLUMBIA RIVER--LOOKING UP                                350
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
+
+  LOOKING UP THE COLUMBIA RIVER FROM THE CLIFF ABOVE MULTNOMAH
+  FALLS, ORE.                                                          352
+    Copyright, 1902, by Kiser Photograph Co.
+
+  SPOKANE FALLS AND CITY, 1886                                         354
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
+
+  SPOKANE FALLS AND CITY, 1908                                         354
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  IN THE HEART OF THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS, ABOVE LAKE CHELAN, WASH.      360
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
+
+  BIRCH-TREE CHANNEL, UPPER COLUMBIA, NEAR GOLDEN, B. C.               362
+    Photo by C. F. Yates, Golden.
+
+  TYPICAL MOUNTAIN MEADOW, STEHEKIN VALLEY, WASH.                      364
+    Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
+
+  HIGH SCHOOL, WALLA WALLA, WASH.                                      366
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman, Walla Walla.
+
+  LAKE CHELAN                                                          368
+    Photo. by F. N. Kneeland.
+
+  ON THE BANKS OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER, NEAR HOOD RIVER                  370
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  ROOSTER ROCK, COLUMBIA RIVER--LOOKING UP                             372
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
+
+  BAND OF ELK ON W. P. RESER'S RANCH, WALLA WALLA, WASH.               374
+    Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
+
+  OREGON CITY IN 1845                                                  376
+    From an old print.
+
+  FORT VANCOUVER IN 1845                                               376
+
+  LONE ROCK, COLUMBIA RIVER, ABOUT FIFTY MILES EAST OF PORTLAND        378
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
+
+  WILLAMETTE FALLS, OREGON CITY, ORE.                                  380
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  AMONG THE BIG SPRUCE TREES, NEAR ASTORIA, OREGON                     382
+    Photo. by Woodfield, Astoria.
+
+  PORTLAND IN 1908. MT. ST. HELENS SIXTY-FIVE MILES DISTANT            384
+
+  PORTLAND HARBOUR, OREGON                                             386
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
+
+  FISH RIVER ROAD IN UPPER COLUMBIA REGION, B. C.                      388
+    Photo. by Trueman, Victoria.
+
+  MULTNOMAH FALLS, 840 FEET HIGH, ON SOUTH SIDE OF COLUMBIA RIVER
+  ABOUT SIXTY MILES ABOVE PORTLAND                                     390
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
+
+  CHINOOK SALMON, WEIGHT 80 POUNDS                                     392
+    Photo. by Woodfield, Astoria.
+
+  LAKE ADELA, NEAR HEAD OF COLUMBIA RIVER, B. C.                       394
+    Photo. by C. F. Yates.
+
+  BRIDAL VEIL BLUFF, COLUMBIA RIVER, OREGON                            396
+    Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
+
+  BAND OF KOOTENAI INDIANS, B. C.                                      398
+    Photo. by Allan Lean, Nelson.
+
+  MAPS                                                            _At End_
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+The History
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+The Land where the River Flows
+
+    Contrasts--The Two Islands--Uplift--Volcanic Action--Flood--Age of
+    Ice--Story of Wishpoosh and Creation of the Tribes--Outline of the
+    Mountain Systems--Peculiar Interlocking of the Columbia and the
+    Kootenai--The Cascade Range--The Inland Empire--The Valleys West of
+    the Cascade Mountains--The Forests--The Climate--The Native Races and
+    Some of their Myths--Story of the Kamiah Monster--The Tomanowas Bridge
+    at the Cascades--Origin of Three Great Mountains--The Chinook
+    Wind--Myths of the Unseen Life--Klickitat Story of the Spirit
+    Baby--Beauty of the Native Names.
+
+
+Wonderfully varied though rivers are, each has a physiognomy of its own.
+Each preserves its characteristics even in the midst of constant
+diversity. We recognise it, as we recognise a person in different changes
+of dress. The Ohio has one face, the Hudson another, and each keeps its
+essential identity. The traveller would not confuse the Rhine with the
+Danube, or the Nile with the Volga.
+
+Even more distinctive than most rivers in form and feature is the
+Columbia, the old Oregon that now hears far other sounds than "his own
+dashings," the River of the West, the Thegayo, the Rio de los Reyes, the
+Rio Estrachos, the Rio de Aguilar, the many-named river which unites all
+parts of the Pacific North-west. It is to its records of romance and
+heroism, of legend and history, as well as to its alternating scenes of
+stormy grandeur and tranquil majesty that the reader's attention is now
+invited. Though among the latest of American rivers to be brought under
+the control of civilised men, the Columbia was among the earliest to
+attract the interest of the explorers of all nations, and the struggles of
+international diplomacy over possession were among the most momentous in
+history. The distance of the Columbia from the centres of population and
+the difficulty of reaching it made its development slow, and for this
+reason its pioneer stage lasted longer than would otherwise have been the
+case. In this part of its history there was a record of pathos, tragedy,
+and achievement not surpassed in any of the annals of our country, while,
+in its later phases, the North-west has had the sweep and energy of growth
+and power characteristic of genuine American development. Finally, by
+reason of scenic grandeur, absorbing interest of physical features, the
+majesty and mystery of its origin in the greatest of American mountains,
+the swift might of its flow through some of the wildest as well as some of
+the most beautiful regions of the globe, and at the last by the peculiar
+grandeur of its entrance into the greatest of the oceans, this "Achilles
+of Rivers" attracts alike historian, scientist, poet, statesman, and lover
+of nature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"A land of old upheaven from the abyss," a land of deepest deeps and
+highest heights, of richest verdure here, and barest desolation there, of
+dense forest on one side, and wide extended prairies on the other; a land,
+in brief, of contrasts, contrasts in contour, hues, productions, and
+history;--such is that imperial domain watered by the Columbia River and
+its affluents. To the artist, the poet, the scientist, and the sportsman,
+this region presents noble and varied scenes of shore, of mountain, of
+river, of lake, while to the romancer and historian it offers a wealth of
+native legend and of record from the heroic ages of American history.
+
+As a fit introduction to the picture of the land as it now appears, there
+may be presented a brief record of the manner in which it was wrought into
+its present form. Professor Thomas Condon of Oregon thought that the first
+land to rise on the Pacific Coast was composed of two islands, one in the
+region of the Siskiyou Mountains of Northern California and Southern
+Oregon, and the other in the heart of what are now the Blue Mountains and
+Saw-tooth Mountains of North-eastern Oregon, South-eastern Washington, and
+Western Idaho. Other geologists have doubted the existence of the second
+of these two islands.
+
+Those islands, if both existed, were the nuclei of the Pacific Coast
+region. The rock consisted of the earlier granite, sandstone, and
+limestone crust of the earth. For long ages these two islands, washed by
+the warm seas of that early age, and bearing a life now found in the
+tropics, were slowly rising and widening their boundaries in all
+directions.
+
+Next, or perhaps as early, to respond to the pressure of the shrinking
+crust of the earth and to appear above the sea, was the vast cordon of
+pinnacled peaks which compose the present Okanogan and Chelan uplift,
+granite and porphyry, broken by volcanic outflow. These peaks are veined
+with gold, silver, and copper.
+
+That first age of mountain uplift was ended by the coming on of the age of
+fire. The granite upheaval of the Blue and the Cascade Mountains was blown
+apart and cracked asunder by volcanic eruption and seismic force. A vast
+outflow of basalt and andesite swept westward from the Blue Mountains to
+meet a similar outflow moving eastward from the Cascades. Thus, throughout
+the Columbia Basin, the surface is mainly of volcanic rock overlying the
+shattered fragments of the original earth crust. At many points, however,
+the primeval granite or sandstone surface was not covered, while at
+frequent intervals the breaking forth of the fiery floods transformed
+those original rocks into various forms of gneiss, porphyry, and marble.
+But the greatest result of the age of volcanic outflow was the elevation
+of the stupendous isolated snow peaks which now constitute so striking a
+feature of Columbian landscapes.
+
+With the close of the age of fire, the mountain chains were in place, as
+they now stand, but the plains and valleys were not yet fashioned. Another
+series of forces must needs come to elaborate the rude outlines of the
+land. And so came on the third great age, the age of flood. The upheaval
+of the mingled granite and volcanic masses of the Cascade and Blue
+Mountains, while at the same time the Rockies were undergoing the same
+process, imprisoned a vast sea over the region now known by Westerners as
+the Inland Empire. In the depths of this sea the sediment from a thousand
+torrents was deposited to fashion the smooth and level valleys of the
+Yakima, the Walla Walla, the Spokane, and lesser streams, while a similar
+process fashioned the valleys of the Willamette and other streams between
+the Cascades and the Coast Mountains westward.
+
+But while the age of flood was shaping the great valley systems, a fourth
+age--the age of ice--was working still other changes upon the plastic
+land. The mountains had been reared by upheaval and volcanic outflow to a
+stupendous height. Then they became glaciated. The whole Northern
+Hemisphere, in fact, took on the character of the present Greenland.
+Enormous glaciers descended the flanks of the mountains, gouging and
+ploughing out the abysmal canyons which now awe the beholder, and scooping
+out the deeps where Chelan, Coeur d'Alene, Pend Oreille, Kaniksu, and
+other great lakes delight the vision of the present day.
+
+Such were the forces that wrought the physical features of the land where
+the River flows. We do not mean to convey the impression that there was a
+single age of each, and that they followed each other in regular
+chronological order. As a matter of fact there were several eras of each,
+interlocked with each other: upheaval, fire, flood, and frost. But as the
+resultant of all, the Columbia Basin assumed its present form. The great
+forces which have thus fashioned this land manifested themselves on a
+scale of vast energy. Evidences of upheaval, fire, flood, and glacier are
+exhibited on every side, and these evidences constitute a testimony of
+geological history of the most interesting nature. Long before this record
+of the rocks had found a white reader, the native red man had read the
+open pages, and interpreted them in the light of his ardent fancy.
+
+The Indian conception of the flood, involving also that of the creation
+of the native tribes, is one of the most fantastic native legends. This is
+the story of the great beaver, Wishpoosh, of Lake Kichelos. According to
+this myth the beaver Wishpoosh inhabited that lake on the summit of the
+Cascade Mountains, the source of the Yakima River.
+
+In the time of the Watetash (animal people) before the advent of men, the
+king beaver, Wishpoosh, of enormous size and voracious appetite, was in
+the evil habit of seizing and devouring the lesser creatures and even the
+vegetation. So destructive did he become that Speelyei, the coyote god of
+the mid-Columbia region, undertook to check his rapacities.
+
+The struggle only made the monster more insatiate, and in his wrath he
+tore out the banks of the lake. The gathered floods swept on down the
+canyon and formed another great lake in the region now known as the
+Kittitas Valley.
+
+But the struggle between Wishpoosh and Speelyei did not end, and the
+former in his mad fury went on thrashing around in this greater lake. For
+a long time the rocky barriers of the Umtanum restrained the flood, but at
+last they gave way before the onslaughts of the wrathful beaver, and the
+loosened waters swept on down and filled the great basin now occupied by
+the fruit and garden ranches of the Cowiche, Natchees, and Atahnum. In
+like fashion the restraining wall at the gap just below Yakima city was
+torn out, and a yet greater lake was formed over all the space where we
+now see the level plains of the Simcoe and Toppenish. The next lake formed
+in the process covered the yet vaster region at the juncture of the
+Yakima, Snake and Columbia rivers. For a long time it was dammed in by
+the Umatilla highlands, but in process of time it, too, was drained by the
+bursting of the rocky wall before the well-directed attacks of Wishpoosh.
+The yet greater lake, the greatest of all, now formed between the Umatilla
+on the east and the Cascade Mountains on the west. But even the towering
+wall of the Cascades gave way in time and the accumulated floods poured on
+without further hindrance to the open sea.
+
+Thus was the series of great lakes drained, the level valleys left, and
+the Great River suffered to flow in its present course. But there is a
+sequel to the story of the flood. For Wishpoosh, being now in the ocean,
+laid about him with such fury that he devoured the fish and whales and so
+threatened all creation that Speelyei perceived that the time had come to
+end it all. Transforming himself into a floating branch, he drifted to
+Wishpoosh and was swallowed. Once inside the monster, the wily god resumed
+his proper size and power; and with his keen-edged knife proceeded to cut
+the vitals of the belligerent beaver, until at last all life ceased, and
+the huge carcass was cast up by the tide on Clatsop beach, just south of
+the mouth of the Great River. And now what to do with the carcass?
+Speelyei solved the problem by cutting it up and from its different parts
+fashioning the tribes as each part was adapted. From the head he made the
+Nez Perces, great in council and oratory. From the arms came the Cayuses,
+powerful with the bow and war-club. The Klickitats were the product of the
+legs, and they were the runners of the land. The belly was transformed
+into the gluttonous Chinooks. At the last there was left an indiscriminate
+mass of hair and gore. This Speelyei hurled up the far distance to the
+east, and out of it sprung the Snake River Indians.
+
+Such is the native physiography and anthropogenesis of the land of the
+Oregon.
+
+If now one could rise on the pinions of the Chinook wind (the warm south
+wind of the Columbia Basin, of which more anon), and from the southern
+springs of the Owyhee and the Malheur could wing his way to the snowy
+peaks in British Columbia, from whose fastnesses there issues the foaming
+torrent of Canoe River, the most northerly of all the tributaries of the
+Great River, he would obtain, in a noble panorama, a view of the land
+where the River flows, in its present aspect, as fashioned by the
+elemental forces of which we have spoken. But not to many is it given thus
+to be "horsed on the sightless couriers of the air," and we must needs use
+imagination in lieu of them. Even a map will be the safest guide for most.
+Inspection of the map will show that the distance to which we have
+referred covers twelve degrees of latitude, while the distance from the
+source of the Snake River in the Yellowstone National Park to the Pacific
+requires a span of fifteen degrees of longitude. The south-eastern part of
+this vast area occupying Southern Idaho is mainly an arid plain; arid,
+indeed, in its natural condition, but, when touched by the vivifying
+waters in union with the ardent sun, it blossoms like a garden of the
+Lord. Upon these vast plains where the volcanic dust has drifted for ages,
+now looking so dismal in their monotonous garb of sage-brush, the millions
+of the future will some time live in peace and plenty, each under his own
+vine and apple-tree. On the eastern boundary, all the way from Western
+Wyoming to Eastern British Columbia, stand cordons of stupendous
+mountains, the western outposts of the great Continental Divide. These
+constitute one spur after another, from whose profound canyons issues river
+after river to swell the torrents of the turbid and impetuous Snake on its
+thousand-mile journey to join the Columbia. Among these tributary streams
+are the Payette, the Boise, the Salmon, and the Clearwater. Yet farther
+north, beyond the system of the Snake, are the Bitter Root, the Missoula,
+the Pend Oreille, the Spokane, and the Kootenai (we follow here the
+American spelling, the Canadian being Kootenay), with almost innumerable
+affluents, draining the huge labyrinths of the Bitter Root Mountains and
+the Silver Bow.
+
+Thus our northward flight carries us to the international boundary in
+latitude 49 degrees.
+
+Far beyond that parallel stretches chain after chain of divisions of the
+great Continental Range, the Selkirks, the Gold Range, Purcell's Range,
+sky-piercing heights, snow-clad and glaciated. Up and down these
+interlocking chains the Columbia and the Kootenai, with their great lakes
+and unexplored tributaries, seem to be playing at hide-and-seek with each
+other. These rivers form here one of the most singular geographical
+phenomena of the world, for so strangely are the parallel chains of
+mountains tilted that the Kootenai, rising in a small lake on the western
+flank of the main chain of the Canadian Rockies and flowing south, passes
+within a mile of the source of the Columbia at Columbia Lake, separated
+only by a nearly level valley. Connection, in fact, is so easy that a
+canal once joined the two rivers. From that point of contact the Kootenai
+flows far south into Idaho, then makes a grand wheel to the north-west,
+forming Kootenai Lake on the way, then wheeling again in its tortuous
+course to the west, it joins the greater stream in the midst of the
+majestic mountain chains which stand guard over the Arrow Lakes. And
+meanwhile where has the Columbia itself been journeying? After the parting
+from the Kootenai it flows directly north-west between two stupendous
+chains of mountains. Reaching its highest northern point in latitude 52
+degrees, where it receives the Canoe River, which has come two hundred
+miles or more from the north, it turns sharply westward, finding a
+passageway cleft in the mountain wall. Thence making a grand wheel toward
+the south, it casts its turbid floods into the long expanse of the Arrow
+Lakes, from which it emerges, clear and bright, soon to join the Kootenai.
+And how far have they journeyed since they parted? The Columbia about six
+hundred miles, and the Kootenai hardly less, though having passed within a
+mile of each other, flowing in opposite directions.
+
+It will be readily seen from this description that the mountains which
+feed the Columbian system of rivers on the east and north, are of singular
+grandeur and interest. But now as we bear our way southward again we
+discover that another mountain system, yet grander and of more curious
+interest, forms the western boundary of the upper Columbia Basin. This is
+the Cascade Range. Sublime, majestic, mysterious, this noble chain of
+mountains, with its tiaras of ice, its girdles of waterfalls, its
+draperies of forest, its jewels of lakes, must make one search long to
+find its parallel in any land for all the general features of mountain
+charm. But over and beyond those more usual delights of the mountains,
+the Cascade Range has a unique feature, one in which it stands unrivalled
+among all the mountains of the earth, with the exception possibly of the
+Andes. This is the feature of the great isolated snow peaks, stationed
+like sentinels at intervals of from thirty to sixty miles all the way from
+the British line to California. There is nothing like this elsewhere on
+the North American continent. The Sierras of California are sublime, but
+their great peaks are not isolated monarchs like those of the Cascades.
+The high Sierras are blended together in one mountain wall, in which no
+single peak dominates any wide extended space. But in the long array of
+the Cascades, five hundred miles and more from the international boundary
+to the California line, one glorious peak after another uplifts the banner
+and sets its regal crown toward sunrise or sunset, king of earth and air
+to the border where the shadow of the next mountain monarch mingles with
+its own. Hence these great Cascade peaks have an individuality which gives
+them a kind of living personality in the life of any one who has lived for
+any length of time within sight of them.
+
+From the north, moving south, we might gaze at these great peaks, and find
+no two alike. Baker--how much finer is the native name, Kulshan, the Great
+White Watcher--first on the north; Shuksan next, the place where the
+storm-winds gather, in the native tongue; then Glacier Peak, with its
+girdle of ice, thirteen great glaciers; Stewart next with its dizzy horn
+of rock set in a field of snow; then the great king-peak of all, Rainier,
+better named by the natives, Takhoma, the fountain breast of milk-white
+waters; and after this, Adams, or in the Indian, Klickitat, with St.
+Helens or Loowit near at hand on the west; then, across the Great River,
+Hood or Wiyeast, with its pinnacled crest; next southward, Jefferson with
+its sharp chimney whose top has never yet been touched by human foot; yet
+beyond, the marvellous group of the Three Sisters, each with its separate
+personality and yet all together combining in one superb whole; then Mt.
+Scott, Mt. Thielson, Diamond Peak, Mt. Pitt, and with them we might well
+include the truncated cone of Mt. Mazama, once the lordliest of the chain,
+but by some mighty convulsion of nature, shorn of crown and head, and now
+bearing on its summit instead the most singular body of water, Crater
+Lake, on all the American continent.
+
+Fifteen is the number of the great peaks named, but there are dozens of
+lesser heights, snow-crowned and regal. The great Cascade chain is,
+therefore, the noblest and most significant feature of the topography of
+the land of the Columbia. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Cascades
+lies what is locally known as the Inland Empire, mainly a continuous
+prairie or series of prairies and valleys, wheat land, orchard land,
+garden land, fertile, beautiful, attractive, broken by an occasional
+mountain spur, as the irregular mass of the Blue Mountains, but
+substantially an inhabited land, reaching from Colville, Spokane, and the
+Okanogan on the north to the Klamath valleys on the south, a region five
+hundred miles long by two hundred wide, a goodly land, one difficult to
+excel in all the potentialities of use for human needs.
+
+Such are the distinguishing features of the Columbia Basin on the east
+side of the Cascade Mountains.
+
+To the west of those mountains is another vast expanse of interior
+valleys, not so large indeed and not more fertile, but even more
+beautiful, and by reason of earlier settlement and contiguity to the
+ocean, better developed.
+
+This series of valleys is enclosed between the Cascade Mountains and the
+Coast Range, and in a general way parallels the Inland Empire already
+described. But this statement should be qualified by the explanation that
+North-western Washington consists of the Puget Sound Basin, which is a
+distinct geographical system, while South-western Oregon consists of the
+Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, and these valleys though commercially and
+politically a part of the Columbia system, are geographically separate,
+since they debouch directly into the Pacific Ocean. There is left,
+therefore, for the Columbia region proper west of the Cascade Mountains,
+the Willamette Valley in Oregon, and the valleys of the Lewis, Kalama, and
+Cowlitz in Washington, with several smaller valleys on each side. The
+Willamette Valley is the great distinguishing feature of this part of the
+Columbia Basin. A more attractive region is hard to find. Mountains
+snow-clad and majestic, the great peaks of the Cascades already described,
+guard it on the east, while westward the gentler slopes of the Coast Range
+separate it from the sea. Between the two ranges lies the valley, two
+hundred miles long by about a hundred broad, including the foot-hills, a
+succession of level plains, oak-crowned hills, and fertile bottoms. Not
+Greece nor Italy nor the Vale of Cashmere can surpass this earthly
+paradise in all the features that compose the beautiful and grand in
+nature.
+
+Geologists tell us that this Willamette region was once a counterpart of
+Puget Sound, only with less depth of water, and that, as the result of
+centuries of change, the old-time Willamette Sound has become the
+Willamette Valley. It has now become the most thickly settled farming
+region of the Columbia Basin, and, as its fitting metropolis, Portland
+sits at the gateway of the Willamette and Columbia, the "Rose City,"
+handsomest of all Western cities, to welcome the commerce of the world.
+
+The valleys on the Washington side of the Columbia make up together a
+region of great beauty, fertility, and productiveness, perhaps a hundred
+miles square, and, though yet but partially developed, contain many
+beautiful homes.
+
+The larger part of the Columbia Valley west of the Cascade Mountains is,
+in its natural state, densely timbered. Here are found "the continuous
+woods where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound but his own dashings."
+These great fir, spruce, cedar, and pine forests, extending a thousand
+miles along the Pacific Coast from Central California to the Straits of
+Fuca (and indeed they continue, though the trees gradually diminish in
+size, for nearly another thousand miles up the Alaska coast), constitute
+the world's largest timber supply. The demands upon it have been
+tremendous during the past twenty years, and the stately growths of
+centuries have vanished largely from all places in the near vicinity of
+shipping points. Yet one can still find primeval woods where the coronals
+of green are borne three hundred feet above the damp and perfumed earth,
+and where the pillars of the wood sustain so continuous a canopy of
+foliage that the sunlight is stopped or filters through only in pale and
+watery rays. Hence all manner of vines and shrubs grow with almost tropic
+profusion, though with weak and straggling stems.
+
+Throughout the entire Pacific North-west the soil is of extraordinary
+fertility. It is largely of volcanic dust as fine as flour and seems to
+contain the constituents of plant life in inexhaustible abundance. Even in
+the arid belts of Eastern Oregon, where to the eye of the stranger the
+appearance is of a hopeless waste, those same elements of plant food
+exist, and with water every manner of tree or vine or flower bursts
+quickly into perfect life.
+
+The climate of the Columbia Basin is a puzzle to the stranger, but in most
+of its aspects it quickly becomes an equal delight. As is well known, the
+Japan ocean current exercises upon the Pacific Coast an effect similar to
+that of the Gulf Stream on Ireland and England. Hence the states of the
+Columbia Valley are much warmer in winter than regions of the same
+latitude on the Atlantic Coast or in the Mississippi Valley. Though the
+average temperature is higher, yet it is cooler in summer on the Pacific
+Coast than on the Atlantic. The Pacific climate has much less of extremes.
+The State of Washington has about the same isothermal line as North
+Carolina. There is, however, another feature of the Columbia climate not
+so well known to non-residents, which is worthy of a passing paragraph.
+This is the division of the country by the Cascade Mountains into a humid
+western section and a dry eastern one. The mountain wall intercepts the
+larger part of the vapour rising from the Pacific and flying eastward, and
+these warm masses of vapour are condensed by the icy barrier and fall in
+rain on the western side. Hence Western Oregon and Washington are damp and
+soft, with frequent clouds and fogs. The rainfall, though varying much, is
+in most places from forty to fifty inches a year. But east of the mountain
+wall which has "milked the clouds," the air is clear and bright, the sun
+shines most of the year from cloudless skies, and there seems to be more
+of tingle and electricity in the atmosphere. The rainfall ranges from ten
+to thirty inches, and in the drier parts vegetation does not flourish
+without irrigation.
+
+Any view of primeval Oregon would be incomplete without a glimpse of the
+native race, that melancholy people, possessed of so many interesting and
+even noble traits, whose sad lot it has mainly been to struggle against
+the advent of a civilisation which they could not understand nor resist,
+and before which they have melted away in pitiful impotency. But they have
+at least had the highest dignity of defeat, for they have died fighting.
+They have realised the conception of the Roman Emperor: "_Me stantem mori
+oportet_."
+
+The Oregon Indians have essentially the same characteristic traits as
+other Indians, secretiveness, patience, vindictiveness, stoicism; and, in
+their best state, fidelity and boundless generosity to friends.
+
+The poor broken fragments of the once populous tribes along the Columbia
+cannot but affect the present-day observer with pity. Most of the tangible
+memorials of this fallen race have vanished with them. Not many of the
+conquerors have been sympathetic or even rational in their treatment of
+the Indians. Hence memorials of memory and imagination which might have
+been drawn from them and treasured up have vanished with them into the
+darkness. Yet many Indian legends have been preserved in one manner and
+another, and these are sufficient to convince us that the native races are
+of the same nature as ourselves. Some of the legends which students of
+Indian lore have gathered, will, perhaps, prove interesting to the reader.
+
+A quaint Nez-Perce myth accounts for the creation as follows: There was
+during the time of the Watetash a monster living in the country of Kamiah
+in Central Idaho. This monster had the peculiar property of an
+irresistible breath, so that when it inhaled, the winds and grass and
+trees and even different animals would be sucked into its devouring maw.
+The Coyote god, being grieved for the destruction wrought by this monster,
+made a coil of rope out of grass and with this went to the summit of
+Wallowa Mountains to test the suction power of the monster. Appearing like
+a tiny spear of grass upon the mountain, he blew a challenge to the
+monster. Descrying the small object in the distance Kamiah began to draw
+the air inward. But strange to say, Coyote did not move. "Ugh, that is a
+great medicine," said the monster. Coyote now took his station upon the
+mountains of the Seven Devils, a good deal closer, and blew his challenge
+again. Again the Kamiah monster tried to breathe so deeply as to draw the
+strange challenger into his grasp, but again he failed. "He is a very big
+medicine," he said once more. And now Coyote mounted the top of the Salmon
+River Mountains, somewhere near the Buffalo Hump of the present time, and
+again the monster's breath failed to draw him. The baffled Kamiah was now
+sure that this was most extraordinary medicine. In reality, Coyote had
+each time held himself by a grass rope tied to the mountain.
+
+Coyote now called into counsel Kotskots, the fox. Providing him with five
+knives, Kotskots advised Coyote to force an entrance into the interior of
+the monster. Entering in, Coyote found people in all stages of emaciation,
+evidently having had their life gradually sucked out of them. It was also
+so cold and dark in the interior that they were chilled into almost a
+condition of insensibility. Looking about him, Coyote began to see great
+chunks of fat and pitch in the vitals of the monster, and accordingly he
+rubbed sticks together and started a fire, which being fed with the fat
+and pitch, soon grew into a cheerful glow. Now, armed with his knives, he
+ascended the vast interior until he reached the heart. He had already
+directed Kotskots to rouse up and gather together all the emaciated
+stowaways and provide that when the monster was cut open they should see
+how to rush out into the sunlight. Great as was the monster Kamiah, he
+could not stop the persistent hacking away at his heart which Coyote now
+entered upon. When the fifth knife was nearly gone, the heart dropped down
+and Kamiah collapsed into a lifeless mass. The people under the guidance
+of Kotskots, burst out into the sunshine and scattered themselves abroad.
+It must be remembered that these were animal people, not human. Coyote
+called upon them to wait until he should have shown them a last wonder,
+for, cutting the monster in pieces, he now began to fashion from the
+pieces a new race of beings to be called men. The portion which he cut
+from the head he flung northward, and of this was fashioned the Flathead
+tribe. The feet he cast eastward, making them the Blackfeet. So he
+continued, making new tribes here and there. But at the last Kotskots
+interposed an objection. "You have made no people," he said, "for the
+valley of the Lapwai, which is the most beautiful of all." Realising the
+force of the suggestion, Coyote mixed the blood of the monster with water
+and sprinkled it in a rain over the entire valley of the Clearwater. From
+these drops of blood and water, the Nez Perce tribe was formed. The heart
+of the monster is still to be seen by all travellers in that country,
+being a heart-shaped hill in the valley of Kamiah.
+
+Perhaps the most perfect and beautiful of all Indian fire myths of the
+Columbia, is that connected with the famous "tomanowas bridge" at the
+Cascades. This myth not only treats of fire, but it also endeavours to
+account for the peculiar formation of the river and for the great snow
+peaks in the near vicinity. This myth has various forms, and in order that
+it may be the better understood, we shall say a word with respect to the
+peculiar physical features in that part of the Columbia. The River, after
+having traversed over a thousand miles from its source in the heart of the
+great Rocky Mountains of Canada, has cleft the Cascade Range asunder with
+a canyon three thousand feet in depth. While generally swift, that portion
+between The Dalles and the Cascades is deep and sluggish. There are,
+moreover, sunken forests on both sides visible at low water, which seem
+plainly to indicate that at that point the river was dammed up by some
+great rock slide or volcanic convulsion. Some of the Indians affirm that
+their grandfathers have told them that there was a time when the river at
+that point passed under an immense natural bridge, and that there were no
+obstructions to the passage of boats under the bridge. At the present time
+there is a cascade of forty feet at that point. This is now overcome by
+government locks. Among other evidences of some such actual occurrence as
+the Indians relate, is the fact that the banks at that point are gradually
+sliding into the river. The prodigious volume of the Columbia, which here
+rises from fifty to seventy-five feet during the summer flood, is
+continually eating into the banks. The railroad has slid several inches a
+year at this point toward the river and requires frequent readjustment. It
+is obvious at a slight inspection that this weird and sublime point has
+been the scene of terrific volcanic and probably seismic action. One
+Indian legend, probably the best known of their stories, is to the effect
+that the downfall of the bridge and consequent damming of the river was
+due to a battle between Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams,--or, some say, Mt. St.
+Helens--in which Mt. Hood hurled a great rock at his antagonist; but,
+falling short of the mark, the rock demolished the bridge instead. This
+event has been made use of by Frederick Balch in his story, _The Bridge of
+the Gods_.
+
+But the finer, though less known legend, which unites both the physical
+conformation of the Cascades and the three great snow mountains of Hood,
+Adams, and St. Helens, with the origin of fire, is to this effect.
+According to the Klickitats, there was once a father and two sons who came
+from the east down the Columbia to the region in which Dalles City is now
+located, and there the two sons quarrelled as to who should possess the
+land. The father, to settle the dispute, shot two arrows, one to the
+north and one to the west. He told one son to find the arrow to the north
+and the other the one to the west, and there to settle and bring up their
+families. The first son, going northward, over what was then a beautiful
+plain, became the progenitor of the Klickitat tribe, while the other son
+was the founder of the great Multnomah nation of the Willamette Valley. To
+separate the two tribes more effectively, Sahale, the Great Spirit, reared
+the chain of the Cascades, though without any great peaks, and for a long
+time all things went in harmony. But for convenience' sake, Sahale had
+created the great tomanowas bridge under which the waters of the Columbia
+flowed, and on this bridge he had stationed a witch woman called Loowit,
+who was to take charge of the fire. This was the only fire in the world.
+As time passed on Loowit observed the deplorable condition of the Indians,
+destitute of fire and the conveniences which it might bring. She therefore
+besought Sahale to allow her to bestow fire upon the Indians. Sahale,
+greatly pleased by the faithfulness and benevolence of Loowit, finally
+granted her request. The lot of the Indians was wonderfully improved by
+the acquisition of fire. They began to make better lodges and clothes and
+had a variety of food and implements, and, in short, were marvellously
+benefited by the bounteous gift.
+
+But Sahale, in order to show his appreciation of the care with which
+Loowit had guarded the sacred fire, now determined to offer her any gift
+she might desire as a reward. Accordingly, in response to his offer,
+Loowit asked that she be transformed into a young and beautiful girl. This
+was accordingly affected, and now, as might have been expected, all the
+Indian chiefs fell deeply in love with the guardian of the tomanowas
+bridge. Loowit paid little heed to any of them, until finally there came
+two chiefs, one from the north called Klickitat and one from the south
+called Wiyeast. Loowit was uncertain which of these two she most desired,
+and as a result a bitter strife arose between the two. This waxed hotter
+and hotter, until, with their respective warriors, they entered upon a
+desperate war. The land was ravaged, all their new comforts were marred,
+and misery and wretchedness ensued. Sahale repented that he had allowed
+Loowit to bestow fire upon the Indians, and determined to undo all his
+work in so far as he could. Accordingly he broke down the tomanowas
+bridge, which dammed up the river with an impassable reef, and put to
+death Loowit, Klickitat, and Wiyeast. But, inasmuch as they had been noble
+and beautiful in life, he determined to give them a fitting commemoration
+after death. Therefore he reared over them as monuments, the great snow
+peaks; over Loowit, what we now call Mt. St. Helens; over Wiyeast, the
+modern Mt. Hood; and, above Klickitat, the great dome which we now call
+Mt. Adams.
+
+Of the miscellaneous myths which pertain to the forces of nature, one of
+the best is that accounting for the Chinook wind. All people who have
+lived long in Oregon or Washington have a conception of that marvellous
+warm wind which in January and February suddenly sends them almost summer
+heat amid snow banks and ice-locked streams, and causes all nature to
+rejoice as with a resurrection of spring time. Scarcely anything can be
+imagined in nature more picturesque and dramatic than this Chinook wind.
+The thermometer may be down nearly to zero, a foot of snow may rest like a
+pall on the earth, or a deadly fog may wrap the earth, when suddenly, as
+if by the breath of inspiration, the fog parts, the peaks of the mountains
+may be seen half stripped of snow, and then, roaring and whistling, the
+warm south wind comes like an army. The snow begins to drip like a pressed
+sponge, the thermometer goes with a jump to sixty, and within two hours we
+find ourselves in the climate of Southern California. No wonder the
+Indians personified this wind. We personify it ourselves.
+
+The Yakima account of the Chinook wind was to the effect that it was
+caused by five brothers who lived on the Columbia River, not far from the
+present town of Columbus. Now there is at rare intervals in this country a
+cold north-east wind, which the Indians on the lower Columbia call the
+Walla Walla wind because it comes from the north-east. The cold wind was
+caused by another set of brothers. Both these sets of brothers had
+grandparents who lived near what is now Umatilla. The two groups of
+brothers were continually fighting each other, sweeping one way or the
+other over the country, alternately freezing or thawing it, blowing down
+trees and causing the dust to fly in clouds, and rendering the country
+generally very uncomfortable. Finally, the Walla Walla brothers sent a
+challenge to the Chinook brothers to undertake a wrestling match, the
+condition being that those who were defeated should forfeit their lives.
+It was agreed that Speelyei should act as umpire and should inflict the
+penalty by decapitating the losers. Speelyei secretly advised the
+grandparents of the Chinook brothers to throw oil on the wrestling ground
+so that their sons might not fall. In like manner he secretly advised the
+grandparents of the Walla Walla brothers to throw ice on the ground.
+Between the ice and the oil it was so slippery that it would be hard for
+any one to keep upright, but inasmuch as the Walla Walla grandfather got
+ice on the ground last, the Chinook brothers were all thrown and killed.
+
+The eldest Chinook had an infant baby at home, whose mother brought him up
+with one sole purpose in view, and that was that he must avenge the death
+of his father and uncles. By continual practice in pulling up trees he
+became prodigiously strong, insomuch that he could pull up the largest fir
+trees and throw them about like weeds. The young man finally reached such
+a degree of strength that he felt that the time had come for him to
+perform his great mission. Therefore he went up the Columbia, pulling up
+trees and tossing them around in different places, and finally passed over
+into the valley of the Yakima, where he lay down to rest by the creek
+called the Setas. There he rested for a day and a night, and the marks of
+his couch are still plainly visible on the mountain side.
+
+Now, turning back again to the Columbia, he sought the hut of his
+grandparents, and when he had found it, he found also that they were in a
+most deplorable condition. The Walla Walla brothers had been having it all
+their own way during these years and had imposed most shamefully upon the
+old people. When he learned this, the young Chinook told his grandfather
+to go out into the Columbia to fish for sturgeon, while he in the meantime
+would lie down in the bottom of the boat and watch for the Walla Walla
+wind. It was the habit of these tormenting Walla Walla wind brothers to
+wait until the old man had got his boat filled with fish, and then they,
+issuing swiftly and silently from the shore, would beset and rob him. This
+time they started out from the shore as usual, but to their great
+astonishment, just as they were about to catch him, the boat would shoot
+on at miraculous speed and leave them far behind. So the old man landed
+safely and brought his fish to the hut. The young Chinook then took his
+grandparents to a stream and washed from them the filth which had gathered
+upon them during all those years of suffering. Strange to say, the filth
+became transformed into trout, and this is the origin of all the trout
+along the Columbia.
+
+As soon as the news became known abroad that there was another Chinook
+champion in the field, the Walla Walla brothers began to demand a new
+wrestling match. Young Chinook very gladly accepted the challenge, though
+he had to meet all five. But now Speelyei secretly suggested to the
+Chinook grandfather that he should wait about throwing the oil on the
+ground until the ice had all been used up. By means of this change of
+practice, the Walla Walla brothers fell speedily before the young Chinook.
+One after another was thrown and beheaded until only the youngest was
+left. His courage failing, he surrendered without a struggle. Speelyei
+then pronounced sentence upon him, telling him that he must live, but
+could henceforth only blow lightly, and never have power to freeze people
+to death. Speelyei also decreed that in order to keep Chinook within
+bounds he should blow his hardest at night time, and should blow upon the
+mountain ridges first in order to prepare people for his coming. Thus
+there came to be moderation in the winds, but Chinook was always the
+victor in the end. And thus at the present time, in the perpetual flux and
+reflux of the oceans of the air, when the north wind sweeps down from the
+chilly zones of Canada upon the Columbia Basin, his triumph is but
+transient. For within a few hours, or days at most, while the cattle are
+threatened with destruction and while ranchers are gazing anxiously about,
+they will discern a blue-black line upon the southern horizon. In a short
+time the mountain ridges can be seen bare of snow, and deliverance is at
+hand. For the next morning, rushing and roaring from the South, comes the
+blessed Chinook, and the icy grip of the North melts as before a blast
+from a furnace. The struggle is short and Chinook's victory is sure.
+
+Nearly all our native races had a more or less coherent idea of a future
+state of rewards and punishments. "The happy hunting ground" of the
+Indians is often referred to in connection with the Indians of the older
+part of the United States. Our Indians have ideas in general quite
+similar. Some believe that there is a hell and a heaven. The Siskiyou
+Indians in Southern Oregon have a curious idea similar to that of the
+ancient Egyptians as well as of the Mohammedans. This is to the effect
+that the regions of the blessed are on the other side of an enormously
+deep chasm. To pass over this, one must cross on a very narrow and
+slippery pole. The good can pass, but the bad fall off into empty space,
+whence they reappear again upon the earth as beasts or birds.
+
+The Klickitat Indians, living along The Dalles of the Columbia have a fine
+legend of the land of spirits. There lived a young chief and a girl who
+were devoted to each other and seemed to be the happiest people in the
+tribe, but suddenly he sickened and died. The girl mourned for him almost
+to the point of death, and he, having reached the land of the spirits,
+could find no happiness there for thinking of her. And so it came to pass
+that a vision began to appear to the girl at night, telling her that she
+must herself go into the land of the spirits in order to console her
+lover. Now there is, near that place, one of the most weird and funereal
+of all the various "memaloose" islands, or death islands, of the Columbia.
+The writer himself has been upon this island and its spectral and volcanic
+desolation makes it a fitting location for ghostly tales. It lies just
+below the "great chute," and even yet has many skeletons upon it. In
+accordance with the directions of the vision, the girl's father made ready
+a canoe, placed her in it, and passed out into the Great River by night,
+to the memaloose island. As the father and his child rowed across the dark
+and forbidding waters, they began to hear the sounds of singing and
+dancing and great joy. Upon the shore of the island they were met by four
+spirit people, who took the girl, but bade the father return, as it was
+not for him to see into the spirit country. Accordingly the girl was
+conducted to the great dance-house of the spirits, and there she met her
+lover, far stronger and more beautiful than when upon earth. That night
+they spent in unspeakable bliss, but when the light began to break in the
+east and the song of the robins was heard from the willows on the shore,
+the singers and the dancers fell asleep.
+
+The girl, too, had gone to sleep, but not soundly like the spirits. When
+the sun had reached the meridian, she woke, and now, to her horror, she
+saw that instead of being in the midst of beautiful spirits, she was
+surrounded by hideous skeletons and loathsome, decaying bodies. Around her
+waist were the bony arms and skeleton fingers of her lover, and his
+grinning teeth and gaping eye-sockets seemed to be turned in mockery upon
+her. Screaming with horror, she leaped up and ran to the edge of the
+island, where, after hunting a long time, she found a boat, in which she
+paddled across to the Indian village. Having presented herself to her
+astonished parents, they became fearful that some great calamity would
+visit the tribe on account of her return, and accordingly her father took
+her the next night back to the memaloose island as before. There she met
+again the happy spirits of the blessed, and there again her lover and she
+spent another night in ecstatic bliss. In the course of time a child was
+born to the girl, beautiful beyond description, being half spirit and half
+human. The spirit bridegroom, being anxious that his mother should see the
+child, sent a spirit messenger to the village, desiring his mother to come
+by night to the memaloose island to visit them. She was told, however,
+that she must not look at the child until ten days had passed. But after
+the old woman had reached the island, her desire to see the wonderful
+child was so intense that she took advantage of a moment's inattention on
+the part of the guard, and, lifting the cloth from the baby board, she
+stole a look at the sleeping infant. And then, dreadful to relate, the
+baby died in consequence of this premature human look. Grieved and
+displeased by this foolish act, the spirit people decreed that the dead
+should never again return nor hold any communication with the living.
+
+In concluding this chapter we cannot forbear to call the attention of our
+readers to the rare beauty of many of the native Indian names of
+localities. These names always have some significance, and ordinarily
+there is some such poetic or figurative conception involved in the name as
+plainly reveals the fact that these rude and unfortunate natives have the
+souls of poets beneath their savage exterior. It is truly lamentable that
+some of the sonorous and poetic native names have been thrust aside for
+the commonplace and oft-repeated names of Eastern or European localities
+or the still less attractive names of discoverers or their unimportant
+friends.
+
+Think of using the names Salem and Portland for Chemeketa and Multnomah,
+the native names. Chemeketa means "Here we Rest," or, some say, the "Place
+of Peace," for it was the council ground of the Willamette Valley Indians.
+But the Methodist missionaries thought that it would have a more Biblical
+sound and conduce to the spiritual welfare of the natives to translate the
+word into its equivalent, Salem. So they spoiled the wild native beauty of
+the name for all time. Multnomah means "Down the Waters." But two Yankee
+sea captains, with a sad deficiency of poetry in them, tossed up a coin to
+decide whether to employ the name of Boston or Portland, the native town
+of each, and the latter won the toss.
+
+Oregon has been more fortunate than Washington in its State name, for it
+has the unique name, stately and sonorous, which old Jonathan Carver first
+used for the River and which is one of the most distinctive of all the
+names of States. But whether Oregon is Indian, Spanish, French, or a
+corruption of something else, or a pure invention of Carver's is one of
+the mooted points in our history. Idaho, too, has one of the most
+mellifluous of names, meaning the "Gem of the Mountains."
+
+All three States have many beautiful and appropriate names of rivers,
+lakes, mountains, and cities. Such are Chelan, "Beautiful Water";
+Umatilla, "The Wind-blown Sand"; Walla Walla, "Where the Waters Meet";
+Shuksan, "The Place of the Storm Winds"; Spokane, "The People of the Sun";
+Kulshan, "The Great White Watcher"; Snoqualmie, "The Falls of the Moon
+God." Seattle derives its name from the old chief Seattle, or Sealth.
+
+The most bitterly disputed name of all is Tacoma _vs._ Rainier, as the
+name of the greatest of our mountains. The name of Rainier was derived by
+Vancouver from that of an officer of the British navy, a man who never
+knew anything of Oregon and had no part or lot in its discovery or
+development. Tacoma, or more accurately, _Takhoma_ (a peculiar guttural
+which we cannot fully indicate), was the native Indian name, meaning,
+according to some, "The Great White Mountain," and according to others
+meaning "The Fountain-breast of Milk-white Waters."
+
+With these glances at the character of the land, and its native
+inhabitants, we are now ready to see how they became known to the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+Tales of the First White Men along the Coast
+
+    Nekahni Mountain and Tallapus--Quootshoi and Toulux--Original Beauty
+    of Clatsop Plains--The Story Told by Celiast and Cultee--Casting of
+    the "Thing" upon the Beach--The Pop-corn--Burning of the
+    Ship--Konapee, the Iron-worker--Franchere's Account of Soto--The
+    Treasure Ship on the Beach at Nekahni Mountain--The Black Spook and
+    Mysterious Chest--The Inscription Still Found on the Rock--The Beeswax
+    Ship--Quiaculliby.
+
+
+We have told something of the mountains, rivers, and lakes which make up
+the framework of our Pacific North-west. We have also tried to see the
+land through the eyes of the native red men, and have called back a few of
+the grotesque, fantastic, sometimes heroic, sometimes pathetic legends
+which they associated with every phase of their country.
+
+Now the very centre of Indian lore, the Parnassus, the Delphi, the Dodona,
+of the lower Columbia River Indians, is the stretch of mingled bluff,
+plain, lake, sand-dune, and mountain, marvellously diversified, from the
+south shore of the Columbia's mouth to the sacred Nekahni Mountain. It is
+a wonderously picturesque region. From it came Tallapus, the Hermes
+Trismegistus of the Oregon Indians. Its forests were haunted by the
+Skookums and Cheatcos. From the volcanic pinnacles of Swallallochast, now
+known as Saddle Mountain, the thunder bird went forth on its daily quest
+of a whale, while at the mountain's foot Quootshoi and Toulux produced the
+first men from the monstrous eggs of that same great bird. In short, that
+region was rich in legend, as it was, and still is, in scenic beauty.
+
+It is said by the Indians that a hundred years or more ago it was much
+finer than now, for the entire breadth of Clatsop Plains was sodded with
+deep green grass and bright with flowers almost the whole year through.
+This bright-hued plain lay open to the sea, and across its southern end
+flowed three tide streams, having the aboriginal names of Nekanikum,
+Ohanna, and Neahcoxie.
+
+It was a veritable paradise for the Indians. The forests were filled with
+elk (moosmoos) and deer (mowitch), while fish of almost every variety
+thronged the waters, from that king of all fish now known as the royal
+chinook of the Columbia down to such smaller fry as the smelt and the
+herring, which even now sometimes so throng the lesser streams that the
+receding tide leaves them by the thousands on the muddy flats. On the
+beach were infinite numbers of clams; and as an evidence of their
+abundance we can now see shell mounds by the acre, in such quantity,
+indeed, that some of the modern roads have been paved with shells.
+
+This favoured region was the home of the Clatsops. There, too, according
+to the legends, the first white men landed. The story of the first
+appearance of the white men has reached our own times in various forms,
+but the most coherent account is through the word of Celiast, an Indian
+woman who died many years ago, but who became the wife of one of the
+earliest white settlers and the mother of Silas Smith, now dead, but known
+in his time as one of the best authorities on Indian history. Celiast was
+the daughter of Kobaiway, a chieftain whose sway extended over the land of
+the Clatsops in the time of the Astor Company a century ago. Celiast was
+in fact the best authority for many of the Indian legends. But she is not
+alone in the knowledge of this appearance of the white men, for a number
+of other Indians tell the substance of the same tale. Among others an old
+Indian of Bay Centre, Washington, by the name of Charlie Cultee, related
+the story to Dr. Franz Boas, whose work in the Smithsonian Institute is
+known as among the best on the native races. This is the story, a
+composite of that of Celiast and that of Cultee.
+
+It appears that an old woman living near the ancient Indian village of
+Ne-Ahkstow, about two miles south of the mouth of the Great River (the
+Columbia) had lost her son. "She wailed for a whole year, and then she
+stopped." One day, after her usual custom, she went to the seaside, and
+walked along the shore towards Clatsop. While on the way she saw something
+very strange. At first it seemed like a whale, but, when the old woman
+came close, she saw that it had two trees standing upright in it. She
+said, "This is no whale; it is a monster." The outside was all covered
+over with something bright, which they afterwards found was copper. Ropes
+were tied all over the two trees, and the inside of the Thing was full of
+iron.
+
+While the old woman gazed in silent wonder, a being that looked like a
+bear, but had a human face, though with long hair all over it, came out of
+the Thing that lay there. Then the old woman hastened home in great fear.
+She thought this bearlike creature must be the spirit of her son, and that
+the Thing was that about which they had heard in the Ekanum tales.
+
+The people, when they had heard the strange story, hastened with bows and
+arrows to the spot. There, sure enough, lay the Thing upon the shore, just
+as the old woman had said. Only instead of one bear there were two
+standing on the Thing. These two creatures,--whether bears or people the
+Indians were not sure,--were just at the point of going down the Thing
+(which they now began to understand was an immense canoe with two trees
+driven into it) to the beach, with kettles in their hands.
+
+As the bewildered people watched them they started a fire and put corn
+into the kettles. Very soon it began to pop and fly with great rapidity up
+and down in the kettles. The pop-corn (the nature of which the Clatsops
+did not then understand) struck them with more surprise than anything
+else,--and this is the one part of the story preserved in every version.
+
+Then the corn-popping strangers made signs that they wanted water. The
+chief sent men to supply them with all their needs, and in the meantime he
+made a careful examination of the strangers. Finding that their hands were
+the same as his own, he became satisfied that they were indeed men. One of
+the Indians ran and climbed up and entered the Thing. Looking into the
+interior, he found it full of boxes. There were also many strings of
+buttons half a fathom long. He went out to call in his relatives, but,
+before he could return, the ship had been set on fire. Or, in the
+language of Charlie Cultee, "It burnt just like fat." As a result of the
+burning of the ship, the Clatsops got possession of the iron, copper, and
+brass.
+
+Now the news of this strange event became noised abroad, and the Indians
+from all the region thronged to Clatsop to see and feel of these strange
+men with hands and feet just like ordinary men, yet with long beards and
+with such peculiar garb as to seem in no sense men. There arose great
+strife as to who should receive and care for the strange men. Each tribe
+or village was very anxious to have them, or at least one of them. The
+Quienaults, the Chehales, and the Willapas, from the beach on the north
+side, came to press their claims. From up the river came the Cowlitz, the
+Cascades, and even the Far-off Klickitat. The different tribes almost had
+a battle for possession, but, according to one account, it was finally
+settled that one of the strange visitors should stay with the Clatsop
+chief, and that one should go with the Willapas on the north side of the
+Great River. According to another, they both stayed at Clatsop.
+
+From this first arrival of white men, the Indians called them all
+"Tlehonnipts," that is, "Of those who drift ashore." One of the men
+possessed the magical art of taking pieces of iron and making knives and
+hatchets. It was indeed to the poor Indians a marvellous gift of Tallapus,
+their god, that they should have a man among them that could perform that
+priceless labour, for the possession of iron knives and hatchets meant the
+indefinite multiplying of canoes, huts, bows and arrows, weapons, and
+implements of every sort. The iron-maker's name was Konapee. The Indians
+kept close watch of him for many days and made him work incessantly. But,
+as the tokens of his skill became numerous, his captors held him in great
+favour and allowed him more liberty. Being permitted to select a site for
+a house, he chose a spot on the Columbia which became known to the
+Indians, even down to the white occupancy of the region, as "Konapee."
+
+Among other possessions, Konapee had a large number of pieces of money,
+which, from the description, must have been Chinese "cash." From this some
+have inferred that Konapee must have been a Chinaman, and the wrecked ship
+a Chinese or Japanese junk. This does not, however, follow. For the
+Spaniards had become entirely familiar with China, and any Spanish vessel
+returning from the Philippine Islands or from China would have been likely
+to have a supply of Chinese money on board.
+
+There is an interesting bit of testimony which seems to belong to this
+same story of Konapee. It is found in the book by Gabriel Franchere in
+regard to the founding of Astoria, the book which was the chief authority
+of Irving in his fascinating narrative entitled _Astoria_. Franchere
+describes meeting an old man, eighty years old, in 1811, at the Cascades,
+whose name was Soto, and who said that his father was one of four
+Spaniards wrecked on Clatsop beach many years before. His father had tried
+to reach the land of the sunrise by going eastward, but having reached the
+Cascades was prevented from going farther and had there married an Indian
+woman, Soto's mother. It is thought likely that the father of Soto was
+Konapee. The two stories seem to fit quite well. If this be true, it is
+likely that Konapee's landing was as early as 1725. If all the details of
+Konapee's life could be known, what a romance might be made of it! There
+is no reason to suppose that he ever saw other white men or ever got away
+from the region where the fortune of shipwreck had cast him. Yet he was in
+possession of one of the greatest geographical secrets of that country,
+for the hope of the discovery of some great "River of the West," the
+elusive stream which many believed to be a pure fabrication of Aguilar and
+other old navigators, had enticed many a "marinere" from many a far
+"countree."
+
+In any event it is probable that the Columbia River Indians had got a
+general knowledge of the whites and their arts from Konapee long before
+the authentic discovery of the river was made. Especially it seems that
+from him they got a knowledge of iron and implements fashioned from it.
+Captain Cook mentions that when he visited the coast in 1780 the Indians
+manifested no surprise at the weapons or implements of iron. In fact even
+all whites who supposed themselves to be the first to visit this coast
+found the Indians ready to trade and especially eager to get iron. A new
+era of trade and business seems to have been inaugurated among these
+Clatsops and Chinooks dating from about the supposed time of Konapee. But
+he was by no means the only one of his race to be cast upon the Oregon
+shore. There is a story of a treasure ship cast upon the beach near
+Nekahni Mountain. This mountain, the original home of Tallapus, while on
+its summit the great chief god Nekahni himself dwelt, is one of the
+noblest pieces of Nature's art all along the shore. Fronting the ocean
+with a precipitous rampart of rock five hundred feet high and thence
+rising in a wide sweeping park clad in thick turf, and dotted here and
+there with beautiful spruce and fir trees, to an elevation of twenty-five
+hundred feet, the sacred Nekahni presents as fine a combination of the
+beautiful and sublime as can be seen upon a whole thousand miles of coast.
+It was a favourite spot with the natives. For lying upon its open and
+turfy slopes they could gaze upon many miles of sea, and could no doubt
+light up their signal fires which might be seen over a wide expanse of
+beach. Very likely there, too, they celebrated the mysterious rites of
+Nekahni and Tallapus.
+
+One pleasant afternoon in early summer, a large group of natives assembled
+upon the lower part of Nekahni, almost upon the edge of the precipitous
+cliff with which it fronts the sea. Gazing into the offing they saw a
+great object like a huge bird drawing near from the outer sea. It
+approached the shore, and then from it a small boat with a number of men
+and a large black box put out to land. Coming to the beach the men took
+out the box and also a black man whom the Indians supposed to be a spook
+or evil demon. Going a little way up the beach the men dug a hole into
+which they lowered the box, and then having struck down the black man they
+threw him on top of the box and, covering it up, they returned to the
+ship, which soon disappeared from sight. On account of the black man
+buried with the box, the superstitious Indians dared not undertake to
+exhume the contents of the grave. But the story was handed from one
+generation to another, and it came to constitute the story of the
+"treasure ship."
+
+In recent times the idea that here some chest, with gold and jewels in
+the most approved style of buried fortunes, might be found has caused much
+searching. The ground has been dug over for the sight of the regulation
+rusty handle which is to lead to the great iron-bound chest with its
+doubloons of gold and crucifixes of pearls. Parties have come from the
+Eastern States to join the search. One party even secured the guidance of
+spirits who professed to locate the treasure. But though the spirit-led
+enthusiasts turned over every stone and dug up the sand for many feet
+along the beach, they found never an iron-bound chest, and never a sign of
+the treasure. There is, however, in plain sight now, on a rock at the foot
+of Nekahni Mountain, a character cut in the rock bearing a rude
+resemblance to a cross. Some think it looks more like the letters, I.H.S.,
+the sacred emblem of the Catholic Church. There is also what seems to be
+quite a distinct arrow pointing in a certain direction. But the treasure
+remains unfound.
+
+The next legend of the prehistoric white man is that of the "Beeswax
+Ship." This, too, has a real confirmation in the presence of large
+quantities of beeswax at a point also near Nekahni Mountain, just north of
+the mouth of the Nehalem River. Some naturalists claimed at one time that
+this substance was simply the natural paraffine produced from the products
+of coal or petroleum. But more recently cakes of the substance stamped
+with the sacred letters, "I.H.S.," together with tapers, and even one
+piece with a bee plainly visible within, may be considered incontestable
+proof that this is indeed beeswax, while the letters, "I.H.S." denote
+plainly enough the origin of the substance in some Spanish colony. An
+interesting point in connection with this is the historical fact that on
+June 16, 1769, the ship _San Jose_ left La Paz, Lower California, for San
+Diego, and was never heard from again. Some have conjectured that the _San
+Jose_ was the "Beeswax Ship," driven far north by some storm or mutiny. As
+to the peculiar fact that a ship should have been entirely loaded with
+beeswax it has been conjectured that some of the good padres of the
+Spanish Missions meant to provide a new station with a large amount of wax
+for the sake of providing tapers for their service, the lighted candles
+proving then, as they do now, a matter of marvel and wonder to the
+natives, and, with other features of ceremonial worship, having a great
+effect to bring them into subjection to the Church.
+
+The Indian legend runs on to the effect that several white men were saved
+from the wreck of the "Beeswax Ship," and that they lived with them. But
+having infringed upon the family rights of the natives, they became
+obnoxious, and were all cut off by an attack from them. One story,
+however, asserts that there was one man left, a blue-eyed, golden-haired
+man, that he took a Nehalem woman, and that from him was descended a
+fair-complexioned progeny, of which a certain chieftain who lived at a
+beautiful little lake on Clatsop plains, now known as Culliby Lake, was
+our Quiaculliby.
+
+Such in brief survey, are some of the stories which preserve the record of
+the space betwixt the Indian age of myth and the period of authentic
+discovery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+How all Nations Sought the River from the Sea and how they Found it
+
+    Search for Gold--Economic Effects--Early Extension of Exploration
+    Westward--Cortez--Magellan--Aguilar--Fables of the Sea--Shakspere and
+    Swift--Maps--Great Wars of the Seventeenth Century and Downfall of
+    Spain--Long Delay--Resumption of Exploration--Spanish Settlement of
+    California--Russia and
+    Behring--Perez--Heceta--Cook--Fur-trade--Gathering of Nations--The
+    Yankees--Gray and Kendrick--Meares and Vancouver--The Complete
+    Discovery--Strife between England and the United States.
+
+
+The period of the Renaissance is one, which by reason of splendid
+achievements in literature, in art, in science, and in discovery, can
+hardly be duplicated. We are here especially concerned with the
+discoverers. A mingling of motives impelled those dauntless spirits
+onward, and among the most potent was the greed for gold. Much American
+history is bound up with the mad rush for the precious metals, and the
+spread of exploration from the West Indies and Mexico, the first centres
+of Spanish power, was one of its results. Only eight years after the
+landing of Columbus on San Salvador, the Portuguese Gaspar Cortereal had
+conceived the idea of a north-west passage, which in some unexplained
+manner became known as the Strait of Anian. In 1543, the Spaniards
+Cabrillo and Ferrelo coasted along the shores of California, and the
+latter was doubtless the first white man to look upon the coast of Oregon.
+In 1577, England appeared in the person of that boldest and most
+picturesque of the half-discoverers, half-pirates, of that time, Francis
+Drake. In that year he set forth on the wonderful voyage in which he
+plundered the treasures of the Spanish Main, cut the golden girdle of
+Manila, queen of the Spanish Orient, skirted along the coast of California
+and Oregon, and at last circumnavigated the globe. Brilliant as were
+Drake's exploits, they did not result in the discovery of our Great River.
+In 1592, just a century after Columbus, Juan de Fuca, whose name is now
+preserved in the strait leading to Puget Sound, is said to have made that
+voyage which is regarded by most historians as a myth, but which affords
+so fascinating a bit of narration that it ought to be true. Two hundred
+years later John Meares, the English navigator, attached the name of the
+stout old Greek pilot to that inlet now familiar to ships of all nations.
+With the passage of a few years more, explorations upon the western shore
+of America began to assume a more definite form. In 1602 the best equipped
+squadron thus far sent out left Acapulco under command of Vizcaino, with
+the aim of carrying out Monterey's great purpose for the northward
+extension of Spanish power. The fleet being scattered by storm, the
+_fragata_ in command of Martin Aguilar ran up the coast as far as latitude
+43 degrees. There they found a cape to which they attached the name still
+held, Cape Blanco. From that point, following the north-westerly trending
+of the coast, they soon came abreast of a "rapid and abundant river, with
+ash trees, willows, and brambles, and other trees of Castile upon its
+banks." This they endeavoured to enter, but from the strength of the
+current could not. "And seeing that they had already reached a higher
+latitude than had been ordered by the viceroy and that the number of the
+sick was great, they decided to return to Acapulco." Torquemada, the
+historian, from whom the account is taken, goes on to say:
+
+    It is supposed that this river is one leading to a great city, which
+    was discovered by the Dutch when they were driven thither by storms,
+    and that it is the Strait of Anian, through which the vessels passed
+    in sailing from the North Sea to the South Sea; and that the city
+    called Quivera is in those parts; and that this is the region referred
+    to in the account which His Majesty read, and which induced him to
+    order this expedition.
+
+The interesting question arises, Was the river the Columbia? It is the
+only large river on the Oregon coast, though the Umpqua, if at flood
+stage, might have given the impression of size. The latitude is not right,
+either, though the Spanish narrator does not say how far north of Cape
+Blanco they went. But whether or not Aguilar really went so far north as
+the Columbia, his voyage was one of much interest. It gave Spain a warrant
+to claim the western coast of America; it still further strengthened the
+idea of the Strait of Anian; it seemed to confirm the romantic conception
+of a great city or group of cities with civilised inhabitants along that
+passage way, and it gave the first name to the river, the Rio de Aguilar.
+
+Thenceforth the navigators of all nations accepted as the primary object
+of their search some great river of the West. Hidden in the fogs of fancy,
+as it lay shrouded in truth in the mists of the ocean, the supposed Rio
+de Aguilar yet held the spell of enchantment over many an "ancient
+mariner" of many a land. Whatsoever nation could actually find the river
+and establish a definite claim to first discovery, would have, by the
+generally accepted usage of nations, the right of occupation and
+ownership.
+
+That was a fruitful time for fables of the sea, and around the Great River
+many of them gathered. The original of Baron Munchausen seems to have
+existed in the persons of Captain Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado and Admiral
+Pedro Bartolome de Fonte. The first of these worthies, whose voyage was
+said to have been made in 1588, describes in a very circumstantial manner
+his passage through the Strait of Anian and his exit upon the Asiatic side
+of the continent. This he averred was marked with a very remarkable rocky
+eminence which rendered it wonderfully adapted to fortification and
+defence, the mountain being so steep, in fact, that a missile dropped from
+the summit would fall directly upon a ship in mid-channel. It is thought
+by some students that some unchronicled Spanish navigator may have
+actually made the inland passage up the Alaskan coast and that some report
+of it may have become transformed into Maldonado's story. Fonte's story
+seems to have first appeared in a London publication in 1708, though his
+voyage was alleged to have been made in 1640. He told a marvellous tale of
+a great river which led to a magnificent lake on whose banks stood a great
+city. The river he located in latitude 53 degrees, and he named it the Rio
+de los Reyes, or River of Kings. This is far north of the Columbia, but
+the account persisted in popular idea for a long time. The name became
+associated with those of the Rio de Aguilar and the River of the West.
+
+These and other similar tales, the flotsam and jetsam of ocean myths, gave
+something of inspiration and suggestion to literature. For even long
+before the alleged exploits of Fonte, the fertile mind of Shakspere had
+conceived of Caliban and Ariel and other fancies of the age of Western
+adventure. And in the next century the prince of political satirists,
+Jonathan Swift, had located almost exactly at the mouth of the Rio de
+Aguilar, the land of the Brobdingnagians, while the countries into which
+the veracious Gulliver was thrown at a later time, Luggnagg and
+Blubdubrib, were in the Pacific at a somewhat indefinite distance from the
+land of the Giants.
+
+The land of the Oregon was in short, the land of the great unexplored and
+of boundless fancy. Some of the old maps illustrating that period are of
+much interest. Zaltieri's map of 1566 shows a generally accurate
+conception of the eastern part of America and of the western coast of
+Mexico and California, but the entire continent above about latitude 60
+degrees is occupied with a _mare septentrionale incognito_. Luck's map of
+1582 presents a fairly good conception of Florida and Mexico, but is
+entirely astray on the western coast. The Wytfliet-Ptolemy map of 1597 has
+a singularly indented coast running nearly east and west in the location
+of Oregon, while Cape Blanco and a river, the Rio de los Estrachos, in
+about latitude 51 degrees, seem to be an attempt to denote Aguilar's cape
+of 1543, and to locate the river by still another name, though in a
+higher latitude. Maldonado's map of the Strait of Anian of 1609 is
+manifestly manufactured to suit the occasion, and is interesting only as
+showing how far mendacity and gullibility could travel hand in hand.
+
+But now the first age of discovery on the coast of Oregon drew to a close.
+It cannot be said that much of tangible knowledge had been attained.
+Puzzling questions had been raised. Labyrinths of conjecture, with no
+definite clues for exit, had been entered. Fascinating romances had been
+so interwoven with probable fact that no one could untangle them. A
+general conception of a great river and a great north-west passage had
+been held up with some distinctness as the goal of navigators. Finally,
+most important of all, what had been seen was of so enticingly interesting
+a nature and seemed to promise results so important, that they furnished a
+motive for continued exploration. It certainly looked as though the
+nations would continue the search for the Great River of the West. Spain
+had the inside track of all, though Drake and Cavendish and Hawkins had
+run down many a richly laden treasure galleon and had laid the booty at
+the feet of the Virgin Queen, and many an embittered buccaneer of French
+or English race had hounded the flag of Spain across the breadth of half
+the seas.
+
+But a great change was impending. There was a new shuffle of the cards in
+the hands of the Fates and the Furies as the seventeenth century moved on
+apace. Spain's time had come. Her cup of iniquity was now full. Her whole
+measure of national policy had been the sword for the pagan and the
+inquisition for the heretic. The banished Moors of Granada and the
+murdered "Beggars" of Holland and the wasted Incas and Montezumas of
+America united to call down the vengeance of Nemesis upon the destroyer of
+a fair world's peace.
+
+The stupendous struggles engendered by the Reformation, culminating in the
+Thirty Years' War, went on almost without pause for over a century. That
+strife, ending at Westphalia in 1648, saw Spain prostrate and the
+principle of religious toleration triumphant. But almost immediately
+another struggle arose, the natural successor of the first, the struggle
+against the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons. As may well be seen, the
+nations of Europe were so enchained in the strife against Pope and King
+that they had little thought for new discoveries. Over a hundred and sixty
+years passed after the voyage of Aguilar before there was another serious
+movement of discovery on the coast of Oregon.
+
+This new movement of Pacific exploration, destined to continue with no
+cessation to our own day, was ushered in by Spain. There was even yet much
+vitality in the fallen mistress of the world. Impelled by both religious
+zeal and hope of material gain, the immigration of 1769 went forth from La
+Paz to San Diego and Monterey. That inaugurated the singular and poetic,
+in some aspects even beautiful, history of Spanish California, an era
+which has provided so much of romance and poetry for literature in the
+California of our own times. The march of events had made it plain to the
+Spanish Government that, if it was to retain a hold on the Pacific Coast,
+it must bestir itself. Russia, England, and France, released in a measure
+from the pressure of European struggles, were fitting out expeditions to
+resume the arrested efforts of the sixteenth century. It seemed plain also
+that colonial America was going to be an active rival on the seas. And
+well may it have so seemed, for, in the sign of the Yankee sailor, the
+conquest was to be made.
+
+But just at that important juncture a most favouring condition arose for
+Spain. The government of England precipitated the struggle of the American
+Revolution. France soon joined to strike her island rival a deadly blow by
+assisting in the liberation of the colonies. For the time, Spain had
+nearly a clear field for Pacific discovery, so far as England and France
+were concerned. As for Russia, the danger was more imminent. Russia had,
+indeed, begun to look in the direction of Pacific expansion a long time
+prior to the Spanish immigration to California. That vast monarchy,
+transformed by the genius of Peter the Great, had stretched its arms from
+the Baltic to the Aleutian Archipelago, and had looked from the frozen
+seas of Siberia to the open Pacific as a fairer field for expansion. Many
+years elapsed, however, before Peter's great designs could be fulfilled.
+Not till 1741 did Vitus Behring thread the thousand islands of Sitka and
+gaze upon the glaciated crest of Mt. St. Elias. And it was not till thirty
+years later that it became understood that the Bay of Avatcha was
+connected by the open sea with China. In 1771 the first cargo of furs was
+shipped directly from Avatcha to Canton. Then first the vastness of the
+Pacific Ocean was comprehended. Then first it was understood that the same
+waters which lashed the frozen ramparts of Kamchatka encircled the coral
+islands of the South Sea and roared against the stormy barriers of Cape
+Horn.
+
+The Russians had not found the Great River, though it appears that Behring
+in 1771 had gone as far south as latitude 46 degrees, just the parallel of
+the mouth of the Columbia. But he was so far off the coast as not to see
+it.
+
+Three Spanish voyages followed in rapid succession: that of Perez in 1774,
+of Heceta in 1775, and of Bodega in 1779. The only notable things in
+connection with the voyage of Perez were his discovery of Queen
+Charlotte's Island, with the sea-otter furs traded by the natives, the
+first sight of that superb group of mountains which we now call the
+Olympic, but which the Spaniards named the Sierra de Santa Rosalia, and
+finally the fine harbour of Nootka on Vancouver Island, named by Perez
+Port San Lorenzo, for years the centre of the fur-trade and the general
+rendezvous of ships of all nations. But no river was found.
+
+With another year a still completer expedition was fitted out, Bruno
+Heceta being commander and Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, second in
+command. This voyage was the most important and interesting thus far in
+the history of the Columbia River exploration. For Heceta actually found
+the Great River, so long sought and so constantly eluding discovery. On
+June 10, 1775, Heceta passed Cape Mendocino, and entered a small bay just
+northward. There he entered into friendly relations with the natives and
+took solemn possession of the country in the name of His Catholic Majesty
+of Spain. Sailing thence northward, he again touched land just south of
+the Straits of Fuca, but there he met disaster at the ill-omened point
+subsequently named Destruction Island. For there his boat landing for
+exploration was set upon by the savage inhabitants, and the entire
+boat-load murdered. Moving southward again, on August 15th, in latitude 46
+degrees 10 minutes, Heceta found himself abreast of some great river.
+Deciding that this must be indeed the mysterious Strait of Fuca, or the
+long concealed river of the other ancient navigators, he made two efforts
+to enter, but the powerful current and uncertain depths deterred him, and
+he at last gave up the effort and bore away for Monterey. Three additional
+names were bestowed upon the River at this time. Thinking the entrance a
+bay, Heceta named it, in honour of the day, Ensenada de Asuncion. Later it
+was more commonly known as Ensenada de Heceta, while the Spanish charts
+designated the river as Rio de San Roque. The name of Cabo de Frondoso
+(Leafy Cape) was bestowed upon the low promontory on the south, now known
+as Point Adams, while upon the picturesque headland on the north which we
+now designate as Cape Hancock, the devout Spaniards conferred the name of
+Cabo de San Roque, August 16th being the day sacred to that saint.
+
+The original account given by Heceta is so interesting that we insert it
+here:
+
+    On the 17th day of August I sailed along the coast to the 46th degree,
+    and observed that from the latitude 47 degrees 4 minutes to that of 46
+    degrees 10 minutes, it runs in the angle of 18 degrees of the second
+    quadrant, and from that latitude to 46 degrees 4 minutes, in the angle
+    of 12 degrees of the same quadrant; the soundings, the shore, the
+    wooded character of the country, and the little islands, being the
+    same as on the preceding days.
+
+    On the evening of this day I discovered a large bay, to which I gave
+    the name Assumption Bay, and a plan of which will be found in this
+    journal. Its latitude and longitude are determined according to the
+    most exact means afforded by theory and practice. The latitudes of the
+    two most prominent capes of this bay are calculated from the
+    observations of this day.
+
+    Having arrived opposite this bay at six in the evening, and placed the
+    ship nearly midway between the two capes, I sounded and found bottom
+    in four brazas [nearly four fathoms]. The currents and eddies were so
+    strong that, notwithstanding a press of sail, it was difficult to get
+    out clear of the northern cape, towards which the current ran, though
+    its direction was eastward in consequence of the tide being at flood.
+    These currents and eddies caused me to believe that the place is the
+    mouth of some great river, or of some passage to another sea. Had I
+    not been certain of the latitude of this bay, from my observations of
+    the same day, I might easily have believed it to be the passage
+    discovered by Juan de Fuca, in 1592, which is placed on the charts
+    between the 47th and the 48th degrees; where I am certain no such
+    strait exists; because I anchored on the 14th day of July midway
+    between these latitudes, and carefully examined everything around.
+    Notwithstanding the great difference between this bay and the passage
+    mentioned by De Fuca, I have little difficulty in conceiving they may
+    be the same, having observed equal or greater differences in the
+    latitudes of other capes and ports on this coast, as I will show at
+    the proper time; and in all cases latitudes thus assigned are higher
+    than the real ones.
+
+    I did not enter and anchor in this port, which in my plan I suppose to
+    be formed by an island, notwithstanding my strong desire to do so;
+    because, having consulted with the second captain, Don Juan Perez, and
+    the pilot Don Christoval Revilla, they insisted I ought not to attempt
+    it, as, if we let go the anchor, we should not have men enough to get
+    it up, and to attend to the other operations which would be thereby
+    necessary. Considering this, and also, that in order to reach the
+    anchorage, I should be obliged to lower my long boat (the only boat I
+    had) and to man it with at least fourteen of the crew, as I could not
+    manage with fewer, and also as it was then late in the day, I resolved
+    to put out; and at the distance of three leagues I lay to. In the
+    course of that night, I experienced heavy currents to the south-west,
+    which made it impossible to enter the bay on the following morning, as
+    I was far to leeward. These currents, however, convinced me that a
+    great quantity of water rushed from this bay on the ebb of the tide.
+
+    The two capes which I name in my plan, Cape San Roque and Cape
+    Frondoso, lie in the angle of 10 degrees of the third quadrant. They
+    are both faced with red earth and are of little elevation.
+
+    On the 18th I observed Cape Frondoso, with another cape, to which I
+    gave the name of Cape Falcon, situated in the latitude of 45 degrees
+    43 minutes, and they lay at an angle of 22 degrees of the third
+    quadrant, and from the last mentioned cape I traced the coast running
+    in the angle of 5 degrees of the second quadrant. This land is
+    mountainous, but not very high, nor so well wooded as that lying
+    between the latitudes of 48 degrees 30 minutes, and 46 degrees. On
+    sounding I found great differences: at a distance of seven leagues I
+    got bottom at 84 brazas; and nearer the coast I sometimes found no
+    bottom; from which I am inclined to believe there are reefs or shoals
+    on these coasts, which is also shown by the colour of the water. In
+    some places the coast presents a beach, in others, it is rocky.
+
+    A flat-topped mountain, which I named the Table, will enable any
+    navigator to know the position of Cape Falcon without observing it; as
+    it is in the latitude of 45 degrees 28 minutes, and may be seen at a
+    great distance, being somewhat elevated.
+
+It may be added that the Cape Falcon of Heceta was the bold elevation
+fronting the sea, known now as Tillamook Head, while the Table Mountain
+was doubtless what we now call Nekahni Mountain, both points especially
+the scenes of Indian myth.
+
+Such was the actual discovery of the Columbia River, and as such the
+Spaniards justly laid claim to Oregon. Their treaty with the United States
+in 1819 was the formal conveyance of their claims to us. Nevertheless
+Heceta only half discovered the River. It seems very strange that with the
+all-important object of two centuries' search before him, he should so
+readily have succumbed to the fear of the powerful outstanding current.
+But the Spaniards were not in general the patient and persistent students
+of the shores that the English and Americans were. Their charts were in
+general worthless. Nevertheless Spain came nearest "making good" of any of
+the European powers. In 1779 Bodega and Arteaga sailed far north and
+sighted a vast snow peak "higher than Orizaba," which was doubtless St.
+Elias. In the same year Martinez and De Haro established themselves at
+Nootka. Subsequent voyages of Bodega, Valdez, and Galiano, and their first
+circumnavigation of Vancouver Island (named by them Quadra's Island, but,
+by mutual courtesy and good-will of the British and Spanish rivals,
+designated Vancouver's and Quadra's Island), gave them a clear title to
+the Pacific Coast of North America from latitude 60 degrees to Mexico.
+
+But "that is another story." What of the Great River? In the very year of
+the declaration of American independence, the most elaborate expedition
+yet fitted out for western discovery, set forth from England in command of
+that Columbus of the eighteenth century, Captain James Cook. After nearly
+two years of important movements in the Southern Hemisphere and among the
+Pacific Islands, Cook turned to that goal of all nations, the coast of
+Oregon. But the same singular fatality which had baffled many of the
+explorers thus far, attended this most skilful navigator and best equipped
+squadron thus far seen on Pacific waters. For Cook passed and repassed the
+near vicinity of both the Straits of Fuca and the Columbia River, but
+without finding either. Killed by the treacherous natives of Hawaii in
+1778, Cook left a great name, a more intelligent conception of world
+geography than was known before, and greatly strengthened claims by Great
+Britain to the ownership of pivotal points of the Pacific. Of all the
+great English navigators, Cook is perhaps best entitled to join the grand
+chorus that sings the _Songs of Seven Seas_. But he did not see the Great
+River of the West. What had become of it? After the fleeting vision which
+it accorded to Heceta, it seemed to have gone into hiding.
+
+But a new set of motives came into play immediately after Cook's voyage.
+The two ships, the _Resolution_ and _Discovery_, took with them to China a
+quantity of furs from Nootka. A few years earlier, as previously stated,
+the Russian fur-trade from Avatcha to China had been inaugurated. A great
+demand for peltries sprang up at once. A new regime dawned in Chinese and
+East India trade. Gold, silver, and jewels had not thus far rewarded the
+search of explorers. They were reserved for our later days of need. But
+the fur-trade was as good as gold. The North Pacific Coast, already
+interesting, assumed a new importance in the eyes of Europeans. The
+"struggle for possession" was on. The ships of all nations converged upon
+the fabled Strait and River of Oregon. English, Dutch, French, Portuguese,
+Spanish, Americans, began in the decade of the eighties to crowd to the
+land where the sea-otter, beaver, seal, and many other of the most
+profitable furs could be obtained for a trifle. The dangers of trading and
+the chances of the sea were great, but the profits of success were yet
+greater.
+
+The fur-trade began to take the place of the gold hunt as a matter of
+international strife. The manner in which our own country, weak and
+discordant as its different members were when just emerging from the
+Revolutionary War, entered the lists, and by the marvellous allotment of
+Fortune or the design of Providence, slipped in between the greater
+nations and secured the prize of Oregon, is one of the epics of history,
+one which ought to have some native Tasso or Calderon to celebrate its
+triumph.
+
+Following quickly upon the conclusion of the American War, came a series
+of British, French, and Russian voyages, which gradually centred more
+particularly about Vancouver Island and Nootka Sound. The British exceeded
+the others in numbers and enterprise. Among them we find names now
+preserved at many conspicuous points on the northern coast: as Portlock,
+Hanna, Dixon, Duncan, and Barclay. The most notable of the French was La
+Perouse, who was best equipped for scientific research of any one. A
+number of Russian names appear at that period, most of which may yet be
+found upon the maps of Alaska, as Schelikoff, Ismyloff, Betschareff,
+Resanoff, Krustenstern, and Baranoff.
+
+But none of them set eyes on the River, and it seemed more mythical than
+ever. As a result, however, of their various expeditions, incomplete
+though they were, each nation followed the usual practice of claiming
+everything in sight, either in sight of the eye or the imagination, and
+demanded the whole coast by priority of discovery.
+
+Never did a geographical entity seem so to play the _ignis fatuus_ with
+the world as did the River. Thirteen years elapsed from the discovery of
+the Rio San Roque by Heceta before any one of the dozens who had meanwhile
+passed up and down the coast, looked in again between the Cabo de Frondoso
+and the Cabo de San Roque. Then there came on one negative and two
+positive discoveries, and the elusive stream was really found never to be
+lost again.
+
+The negative discovery was that of Captain John Meares in 1788. Since
+England afterwards endeavoured to make the voyages of Meares an important
+link in her chain of proof to the ownership of Oregon, it is worthy of
+some special attention. It happened on this wise. Meares came first to the
+coast of Oregon in 1786, in command of the _Nootka_ to trade for furs for
+the East India Company. With the _Nootka_ was the _Sea-Otter_, in command
+of Captain Walter Tipping. Both seem to have been brave and capable
+seamen. But disaster followed on their track. For having sailed far up the
+coast, they followed the Aleutian Archipelago eastward to Prince William's
+Sound. Separated on the journey, the _Nootka_ reached a safe haven, but
+her consort never arrived, nor was she ever heard of more. The _Nootka_,
+after an Arctic winter of distress and after losing a large part of the
+crew through the ravages of scurvy, abandoned the trade and returned to
+China. Discouraged by the outcome, the East India Company abandoned the
+American trade and confined themselves henceforth to India.
+
+But Meares, finding that the Portuguese had special privileges in the
+fur-trade and in the harbour of Nootka, entered into an arrangement with
+some Portuguese traders whereby he went nominally as supercargo, but
+really as captain of the _Felice_, under the Portuguese flag. With her
+sailed the _Iphigenia_ with William Douglas occupying a place similar to
+that of Meares. In estimating the subsequent pretensions of Great Britain,
+the student of history may well remember that these two mariners, though
+Englishmen, were sailing under the flag of Portugal.
+
+Reaching again the coast of Oregon, Meares looked in, June 29, 1788, at
+the broad entrance of an extensive strait which he believed to be the
+mythical Strait of Juan de Fuca of two centuries earlier, but which he did
+not pause to explore. He had resolved to solve the riddle of the Rio San
+Roque or the Ensenada de Asuncion or de Heceta, and turned his prow
+southward. On July 5th, in latitude 46 degrees 10 minutes, he perceived a
+deep bay which he considered at once to be the object of his search.
+Essaying to enter, he found the water shoaling with dangerous rapidity and
+a prodigious easterly swell breaking on the shore. From the masthead it
+seemed that the breakers extended clear across the entrance. With rather
+curious timidity for a bold Briton right on the eve of a discovery for
+which all nations had been looking, Meares lost courage and hauled out,
+attaching the name Deception Bay to the inlet and Cape Disappointment to
+the northern promontory, the last a name still officially used.
+
+Meares left as his final conclusion in the matter, the following
+memorandum: "We can now assert that there is no such river as that of St.
+Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts." In view of this statement
+of the case it would certainly seem that he could not be accepted as a
+witness for English discovery, even if the Portuguese flag had not been
+flying at his masthead.
+
+After bestowing the name of Lookout upon the great headland christened
+Cape Falcon by Heceta and known to us as Tillamook Head, Meares squared
+away for Nootka, and there he spent a very profitable season in the
+fur-trade.
+
+But into the harbour of Nootka that same year of 1788, there sailed the
+ship of destiny, the _Columbia Rediviva_, in command of John Kendrick.
+With the _Columbia_ came the _Lady Washington_, commanded by Robert Gray.
+These were the advance guard of Yankee ships which the energies of our
+liberated forefathers were sending forth as an earnest of the coming
+conquest of Oregon by the universal Yankee nation.
+
+Gray and Kendrick were engaged in the fur-trade, and their energy and
+intelligence made it speedily profitable. It took a long time and a long
+arm, sure enough, in that day, to complete the great circuit of the
+outfitting, the bartering, the transferring, the return trip, and the
+final sale;--three years in all. The ship would be fitted out in Boston or
+New York with trinkets, axes, hatchets, and tobacco, and proceed by the
+Horn to the coast of Oregon,--six months or sometimes eight. Then up and
+down the coast, as far as known, they would trade with natives for the
+precious furs, making a profit of a thousand per cent. on the investment.
+Gray on one occasion got for an axe a quantity of furs worth $8000. The
+fur-barter would take another six or eight months. Then with hold packed
+with bales of furs, the ship would square away for Macao or Canton, six or
+eight months more. In China, the cargo of furs would go out and a cargo of
+nankeens, teas, and silks go in, with a great margin of profit at both
+ends. Then away again to Boston, there to sell the proceeds of that three
+years' "round-up" of the seas, for probably ten times the entire cost of
+outfitting and subsistence. The glory, fascination, and gain of the ocean
+were in it, and also its dangers. Of this sufficient witness is found in
+vanished ships, murdered crews, storm, scurvy, famine, and war. But it was
+a great age. Gray and Kendrick were as good specimens of their keen,
+facile, far-sighted countrymen, as Meares and Vancouver were of the
+self-opinionated, determined, yet withal manly and thorough Britons.
+
+Among other pressing matters, such as looking out for good fur-trade in
+order to recoup the Boston merchants who had put their good money into the
+venture, and looking out for the health of their crew, steering clear of
+the uncharted reefs and avoiding the treacherous natives, Gray and
+Kendrick remembered that they were also good Americans. They must see that
+the new Stars and Stripes had their due upon the new coast.
+
+The first voyage of the two Yankee skippers was ended and they set forth
+for another round in 1791, but with ships exchanged, Gray commanding the
+_Columbia_ on this second voyage. The year 1792 was now come, and it was a
+great year in the annals of Oregon, three hundred years from Columbus,
+two hundred from Juan de Fuca. The struggle between England and Spain over
+conflicting rights at Nootka, which at one time threatened war, had been
+settled with a measure of amicability. As a commissioner to represent
+Great Britain, Captain George Vancouver was sent out, while Bodega y
+Quadra was empowered to act in like capacity for Spain. Spaniards and
+Britons alike realised that, whatever the Nootka treaty may have been,
+possession was nine points of the law, and both redoubled their efforts to
+push discovery, and especially to make the first complete exploration of
+the Straits of Fuca and the supposed Great River. There were great names
+among the Spaniards in that year, some of which still commemorate some of
+the most interesting geographical points, as Quimper, Malaspina, Fidalgo,
+Caamano, Elisa, Bustamente, Valdez, and Galiano. A list of British names
+now applied to many points, as Vancouver, Puget, Georgia, Baker, Hood,
+Rainier, St. Helens, Whidby, Vashon, Townsend, and others, attests the
+name-bestowing care of the British commander.
+
+In going to Nootka as British commissioner, Vancouver was under
+instructions to make the most careful examination of the coast, especially
+of the rivers or any interoceanic channels, and thereby clear up the many
+conundrums of the ocean on that shore. With the best ship, the war sloop
+_Discovery_, accompanied by the armed tender _Chatham_, in command of
+Lieutenant W. R. Broughton, and with the best crew and best general
+equipment yet seen on the coast, it would have been expected that the
+doughty Briton would have found all the important places yet unfound.
+That the Americans beat him in finding the River and that the Spaniards
+beat him in the race through the Straits and around Vancouver Island, may
+be regarded as due partly to a little British obstinacy at a critical
+time, but mainly due to the appointment of the Fates.
+
+On April 27, 1792, Vancouver passed a "conspicuous point of land composed
+of a cluster of hummocks, moderately high and projecting into the sea."
+This cape was in latitude 46 degrees 19 minutes, and Vancouver decided
+that here were doubtless the Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay of
+Meares. In spite of the significant fact that the sea here changed its
+colour, the British commander was so prepossessed with the idea that
+Meares must have decided correctly the nature of the entrance (for how was
+it possible for an English sailor to be wrong and a Spaniard right?) that
+he decided that the opening was not worthy of more attention and passed on
+up the coast. So the English lost their second great chance of being first
+to enter the River.
+
+Two days later the lookout reported a sail, and as the ships drew
+together, the newcomer was seen to be flying the Stars and Stripes. It was
+the _Columbia Rediviva_, Captain Robert Gray, of Boston. In response to
+Vancouver's rather patronising queries, the Yankee skipper gave a summary
+of his log for some months past. Among other things he stated that he had
+passed what seemed to be a powerful river in latitude 46 degrees 10
+minutes, which for nine days he had tried in vain to enter, being repelled
+by the strength of the current. He now proposed returning to that point
+and renewing his effort. Vancouver declined to reconsider his previous
+decision that there could be no large river, and passed on to make his
+very elaborate exploration of the Straits of Fuca and their connected
+waters, and to discover to his great chagrin, that the Spaniards had
+forestalled him in point of time.
+
+The vessels parted. Gray sailed south and on May 10, 1792, paused abreast
+of the same reflex of water where before for nine days he had tried vainly
+to enter. The morning of the 11th dawned clear and favourable, light wind,
+gentle sea, a broad, clear channel, plainly of sufficient depth. The time
+was now come. The man and the occasion met. Gray seems from the first to
+have been ready to take some chances for the sake of some great success.
+He always hugged the shore closely enough to be on intimate terms with it.
+And he was ready boldly to seize and use favouring circumstances. So, as
+laconically stated in his log-book, he ran in with all sail set, and at
+ten o'clock found himself in a large river of fresh water, at a point
+about twenty miles from the ocean.
+
+The geographical Sphinx was answered. Gray was its Oedipus, though unlike
+the ancient Theban myth there was no need that either the Sphinx of the
+Oregon coast or its discoverer perish. The River recognised and welcomed
+its master.
+
+The next day the _Columbia_ moved fifteen miles up the stream. Finding
+that he was out of the channel, Gray stopped further progress and turned
+again seaward. Natives, apparently friendly disposed, thronged in canoes
+round the ship, and a large quantity of furs was secured.
+
+The River already bore many names, but Gray added another, and it was the
+one that has remained, the name of his good ship _Columbia_. Upon the
+southern cape he bestowed the name of Adams, and upon the northern, the
+name Hancock. These also remain.
+
+The great exploit was completed. The long sought River of the West was
+found, and by an American. The path of destiny for the new Republic of the
+West was made secure. Without Oregon we probably would not have acquired
+California, and without a Pacific Coast, the United States would
+inevitably have been but a second-class power, the prey to European
+intrigue. The vast importance of the issue then becomes clear. Gray's
+happy voyage, that Yankee foresight and confidence in his seamanship and
+intuitive suiting of times and conditions to results which marks the vital
+turning points of history, differentiate Gray's discovery from all others
+upon our north-west coast.
+
+As we view the matter now, a century and more later, we can see that our
+national destiny, and especially the vast part that we now seem at the
+point of taking in world interests through the commerce of the Pacific,
+hung in the balance to a certain extent upon the stubborn adherence by
+Vancouver, the Briton, to the preconceived opinion that there was no
+important river at the point designated by his Spanish predecessor, and
+the contrasted readiness of the American Gray to embrace boldly the
+chances of some great discovery. It is true that the "Oregon Question" was
+not to be settled for several decades. Much diplomacy and contention,
+almost to the verge of war, were yet to come, but Gray's fortunate dash,
+"with all sail set, in between the breakers to a large river of fresh
+water," gave our nation a lead in the ultimate adjustment of the case,
+which we never lost.
+
+We have said that there was one negative discovery--that of Meares--and
+two positive ones. Gray's was one of the two, and that of Broughton, in
+command of the _Chatham_ accompanying Vancouver, was the other.
+
+On the 20th of May, the _Columbia Rediviva_--a most auspicious name--bade
+adieu to the scene of her glory, and with the Stars and Stripes floating
+in triumph at her mizzen-mast, turned northward. Again the American
+captain encountered Vancouver and narrated to him his discovery of the
+Columbia. With deep chagrin at his own failure in the two most important
+objects of discovery in his voyage, the British commander directed
+Broughton to return to latitude 46 degrees 10 minutes, enter the river,
+and proceed as far up as time allowed.
+
+Accordingly, on October 21st, the companion ships parted at the mouth of
+the River, the _Discovery_ proceeding to Monterey, while the _Chatham_
+crossed the bar, described by Broughton as very bad, and endeavoured to
+ascend the bay that stretched out beautiful and broad before them. But
+finding the channel intricate and soundings variable, the lieutenant
+deemed it advisable to leave the ship at a point which must have been
+about twenty miles from the ocean, and to proceed thence in the cutter.
+
+There is one thing observable in Vancouver's account of this expedition of
+Broughton, and that is extreme solicitude to establish these two
+propositions:--first, that the lower part of the Columbia is a bay and
+that its true mouth is at a point above that reached by Gray; and second,
+that the River is much smaller than it really is. It is hard to reconcile
+the language used in Broughton's report as given by Vancouver with the
+supposition of candour and honesty. For while it is true that the lower
+part of the River is of bay-like expanse from four to nine miles in width,
+yet it is entirely fresh and has all river characteristics. One of the
+points especially made by Gray was that he filled his casks with fresh
+water. Moreover, the bar is entirely at the ocean limit. So completely
+does the River debouch into the Ocean, in fact, that in the great flood of
+1894 the clams were killed on the ocean beaches for a distance of several
+miles on either side of the outer headlands through the freshening of the
+sea.
+
+As to the size of the River, Broughton gives its width repeatedly as half
+a mile or a quarter of a mile, whereas it is at almost no point below the
+Cascades less than a mile in width, and a mile and a half is more usual.
+Broughton expresses the conviction that it can never be used for
+navigation by vessels of any size. In view of the vast commerce now
+constantly passing in and out, the absurdity of that idea is and has been
+for years sufficiently exhibited. The animus of the British explorers is
+obvious. By showing that the mouth of the River was really an inlet of the
+sea, they hoped to lay a claim to British occupancy as against Gray's
+discovery, and by belittling the size of the River they hoped to save
+their own credit with the British Admiralty for having lost so great a
+chance for first occupation.
+
+Broughton ascended the River to a point near the modern town of Washougal.
+He bestowed British names after the general fashion, as Mt. Hood, Cape
+George, Vancouver Point, Puget's Island, Young's Bay, Menzies' Island,
+and Whidby's River. With true British assurance, he felt that he had
+"every reason to believe that the subjects of no other civilised nation or
+state had ever entered this river before; in this opinion he was confirmed
+by Mr. Gray's sketch, in which it does not appear that Mr. Gray either saw
+or was ever within five leagues of its entrance." Therefore he "took
+possession of the river, and the country in its vicinity, in His Britannic
+Majesty's name."
+
+In view of all the circumstances of Gray's discovery, and his impartation
+of it to the British, this language of Vancouver has a coolness, as John
+Fiske remarks, which would be very refreshing on a hot day.
+
+On November 10th, the _Chatham_ crossed the bar outward bound for Monterey
+to join the _Discovery_.
+
+Such, in rapid view, were the essential facts in the long and curiously
+complicated finding of our River. We see that various nations bore each a
+part. We see the foundation of the subsequent contention between Great
+Britain and the United States.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The First Steps across the Wilderness in Search of the River
+
+    Jefferson and Ledyard--Verendrye--Montcachabe, the Indian--The
+    Indians--The Canadians--Results of the Louisiana Purchase--Fitting out
+    the Lewis and Clark Expedition--The Winter with the Mandans--Crossing
+    of the Great Divide--Meeting of Sacajawea and Cameahwait--Descent from
+    the Mountains to the Clearwater and Kimooenim--Canoe Journey Down the
+    Snake and Columbia--First Sight of Mt. Hood--Clark in the Role of a
+    Magician--The Timm or Great Falls--The Sunken Forests--First
+    Appearances of the Tide--The Winter of 1805-06 at Fort Clatsop--The
+    Beginning of the Return Trip--Faithfulness of the Indians--Reception
+    of Lewis and Clark in the States--The Hunt Expedition--The _Voyageurs_
+    and Trappers--Slow Progress to the Snake River--Disasters and Distress
+    along the "Accursed Mad River"--Starvation--New Year's Day of 1812--A
+    Respite from Suffering in the Umatilla--First Sight of the Columbia
+    and the Mid-winter Descent to Astoria--Melancholy Lot of Crooks and
+    Day--Results of the Hunt Expedition.
+
+
+The Pacific North-west was discovered both by land and by sea. To Thomas
+Jefferson, the great apostle of Democracy, is due the gathering of
+American interests in the far West, and the opening of the road by which
+American sovereignty was to reach the Pacific. His great mind outran that
+of the ordinary statesman of his time, and, with what seems at first sight
+the strangest inconsistency in our political history, he was the
+State-rights theorist and at the same time the creator of nationality
+beyond any other one of our early statesmen. Away back in 1786, Jefferson
+met John Ledyard, one of Cook's associates in his great voyage to the
+Pacific Ocean, and grasped from the eager and energetic Yankee sailor, the
+idea of American destiny on the Pacific Coast. The fertile mind of
+Jefferson may justly be considered as the fountain of American exploration
+up the Missouri, across the crest of the Shining Mountains, as they then
+called the Rockies, and down the Columbia to the Pacific. Although
+Jefferson never himself took any steps beyond the Alleghanies, he was the
+inspiration of all the Americans who did take those steps.
+
+Since we are speaking of first steps across the wilderness we should not
+forget that those of other nationalities than ours first crossed the
+American continent. The honour of the pioneer expedition to the crest of
+the Rocky Mountains belongs to the Frenchman, Verendrye. In 1773 he set
+forth from Montreal for the Rocky Mountains, and made many important
+explorations. His party is said to have reached the vicinity of the site
+of Helena, but never saw the sunset side of the Great Divide.
+
+We are told by the interesting French writer, La Page, that the first man
+to proceed across the continent to the shores of the Pacific was a Yazoo
+Indian, Montcachabe or Montcacht Ape by name. According to the story, his
+two-year journey across the great wilderness through every species of
+peril and hardship, savage beasts and forbidding mountains and deserts,
+hostile Indians often barring his progress for many days, was one of the
+most remarkable explorations ever made by man. This Yazoo Indian with the
+long name was a veritable Columbus in the nature of his achievements. But
+results for the world could hardly follow his enterprise.
+
+The first traveller to lead a party of civilised men through the Shining,
+or the Stony Mountains, finally known as Rocky Mountains, to the Pacific
+Ocean, was Alexander Mackenzie, a canny Scotchman, leading a party of
+Scotch and French Canadian explorers. In 1793 he reached the Pacific Coast
+at the point of 52 degrees 24 minutes 48 seconds north latitude. His
+inscription upon a rock with letters of vermilion and grease, were read
+many years afterwards: "Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada by land, July 22,
+1793."
+
+But the explorations of Canadians were too far north to come within the
+scope of the Pacific North-west of our day. We must therefore take up the
+American expeditions which proceeded from the master mind of Jefferson.
+The first of these was the expedition of Lewis and Clark. This expedition
+did more to broaden the American mind and to fix our national destiny than
+any similar event in our whole history.
+
+As soon as Jefferson was inaugurated president, he had urged upon Congress
+the fitting out of an expedition "to explore the Missouri River and such
+principal streams of it as, by its course of communication with the waters
+of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other
+river, may offer the most direct and practical water communication across
+the continent, for the purposes of commerce."
+
+But before anything had actually been accomplished in the way of
+exploration, that vast and important event, the Louisiana Purchase, had
+been effected. The significance of this event was but little understood at
+the time, even by statesmen, but Jefferson realised that a great thing
+had been accomplished towards the development of the nation. His
+enthusiasm and hopefulness spread to Congress and to the leaders of
+opinion throughout the land. A like enthusiasm soon possessed the mass of
+population, and emigration westward began. Already the older West was
+teeming with that race of pioneers which has made up the life and the
+grandeur of the nineteenth century. The American hive began to swarm. "Out
+West" began to mean something more than Ohio and Kentucky. The distant
+sources of the Missouri and the heights of the Shining Mountains, with all
+the fantastic tales that had been told of them, were drawing our
+grandfathers farther and farther from the old colonial America of the
+eastern coast, and were beginning to modify the whole course of American
+history. The atmosphere of boundless expectation gathered over farm and
+town in the older States and the proposed expedition of Lewis and Clark
+fascinated the people as much as the voyage of Columbus fascinated the
+Spain of his day.
+
+And what manner of men were in charge of this expedition, thus filled with
+both interest and peril? Meriwether Lewis was the leader of the party. He
+was a captain in the U. S. Army who was well known to Jefferson and who
+had been selected by him as possessed of the endurance, boldness, and
+energy which made him the fittest man within Jefferson's knowledge for the
+duties of commander. His whole life, from his boyhood days in Virginia,
+had been one of bold adventure. It is related that at the tender age of
+eight, he was already illustrious for successful midnight forays upon the
+coon and possum. He had not received a scientific education, but
+immediately upon receiving the appointment of commander of the expedition,
+he entered with great energy upon the acquisition of knowledge along
+geographical lines which would best fit him for preserving an accurate
+record of his journey. William Clark, the lieutenant of the expedition,
+was also a United States officer, a man of very good judgment, boldness,
+and skill in organising his work, and readiness in meeting every kind of
+emergency. The party was made up of fourteen United States regular
+soldiers, nine Kentucky volunteers, two French voyageurs, a hunter, an
+interpreter and a negro servant. The soldiers were offered the munificent
+bounty of retirement upon full pay, with a grant of land. By Jefferson's
+directions, the party were encouraged to keep complete records of all they
+saw and did. They carried out the instruction so fully that seven journals
+besides those of Lewis and Clark themselves, were carefully kept, and in
+them a record was made of every important, as well as unimportant,
+discovery, even down to the ingredients of their meals and their doses of
+medicine. It is safe to say that no expedition was ever more fully or
+accurately reported. Although not a single one of the party possessed
+literary attainments, there is nevertheless a singular charm about the
+combined record which has been recognised to this day by repeated editions
+of the work. It was well understood that the success of the expedition
+depended largely upon making friends with the Indians, and the explorers
+were therefore completely fitted out with beads, mirrors, knives, and all
+manner of trinkets.
+
+The summer of 1804 was spent in an easy and uneventful journey of five
+months up the Missouri to the country of the Mandan Indians, in what is
+now Dakota. There they determined to winter. The winter was devoted to
+making the acquaintance of Indians and to collecting botanical and
+zooelogical specimens, of which they sent President Jefferson a large
+amount by a portion of the party which now left them and descended the
+River. And, while speaking of their relations to Indians, it is very
+interesting to note the attitude Jefferson instructed them to take in
+respect to the native tribes. He insisted upon a policy of peace and
+good-will toward all the tribes upon the route. It is observable that
+Jefferson refers in a most considerate and friendly manner to the Indians,
+and instructs the explorers to arrange, if possible, to have some of the
+more important chiefs induced to come back with the explorers to the city
+of Washington. He also points out the desirability of urging any bright
+young Indians to receive such arts as might be useful to them when in
+contact with the white men. Jefferson even goes so far as to advise the
+explorers to take along vaccine matter that the Indians might be
+instructed in the advantages of vaccination. A number of medallion medals
+were made that were intended to be given as presents to Indian chiefs, the
+inscription of which was "Peace and Friendship," with the design of
+clasped hands. These medals, it may be remarked, seem to have been prized
+by the Indians as among their greatest treasures. Several of them have
+been found in Indian graves; one even in a grave of the Nez Perce Indians
+in Idaho.
+
+While among the Mandans, the expedition was joined by the most attractive
+personage in it, that is to say, Sacajawea. This young Indian woman, the
+only woman in the expedition, seems to have furnished the picturesque
+element in the composition of the party, and she has in later days become
+the subject of great interest on the part of students of Pacific Coast
+history.
+
+[Illustration: Mt. Adams from the South. Photo. by W. D. Lyman.]
+
+On April 7th, everything was in readiness for resuming their journey up
+the River. The explorers embarked again in a squadron of six canoes and
+two pirogues.
+
+On the twelfth day of August, an advance party of the explorers crossed
+the Great Divide of the Rocky Mountains, the birthplace of mighty rivers.
+Descending the western slope, they found themselves in the country of the
+Shoshone Indians. Captain Lewis was leading this advance expedition, and,
+as he neared the highest point of the pass, he realised the significance
+of the transition from the waters of the Missouri to those of the
+Columbia. A quotation from his narrative at this most interesting point of
+the journey gives the reader a better conception than any description
+could, of the feelings of the explorers:
+
+    The road was still plain, and as it led directly toward the mountains,
+    the stream gradually became smaller, till after their advancing two
+    miles further, it had so greatly diminished in width that one of the
+    men in a fit of enthusiasm, with one foot on each side of the rivulet,
+    thanked God that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. As they
+    proceeded, their hope of seeing the waters of the Columbia rose to
+    almost painful anxiety; when at the distance of four miles from the
+    last abrupt turn of the stream, they reached a small gap formed by the
+    high mountains which recede on either side, leaving room for the
+    Indian road. From the foot of one of the lowest of these mountains,
+    which arises with a gentle ascent of about half a mile, issued the
+    remotest water of the Missouri. They had now reached the hidden
+    sources of that river, which had never before been seen by civilised
+    man; and as they quenched their thirst at the chaste and icy
+    fountain,--as they sat down by the brink of that little rivulet, which
+    yielded its distant and modest tribute to the parent ocean,--they felt
+    themselves rewarded for all their labours and difficulties. They left
+    reluctantly this interesting spot, and pursuing the Indian road
+    through the interval of the hills, arrived at the top of a ridge from
+    which they saw high mountains, partially covered with snow, still to
+    the west of them. The ridge on which they stood formed the dividing
+    line between the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. They
+    found the descent much steeper than on the eastern side, and at the
+    distance of three-quarters of a mile, reached a handsome, bold creek
+    of cold, clear water running to the westward. They stopped to taste
+    for the first time the waters of the Columbia.
+
+The party was now upon the western slope of the Great Divide, in the
+vicinity of the present Fort Lemhi in Eastern Idaho. They supposed that
+they were almost to the Pacific, not realising that a thousand miles of
+difficult and dangerous travel and more than two months of time still
+separated them from their wished-for goal. The journey, in fact, from the
+springs of the Missouri to the navigable waters of the Columbia, proved to
+be the most critical of the whole series.
+
+Soon after passing the crest of the mountains, the party encountered a
+band of sixty Indians of the Shoshone tribe, coming to meet them at full
+speed, upon fine horses, and armed for battle. Captain Lewis, who always
+showed great discretion with Indians, took the Stars and Stripes in his
+hand, and advanced alone to meet the party. As soon as the Indians
+perceived that he was a white man, they showed signs of great rejoicing,
+and the three leaders of the war-party, dismounting, embraced the American
+captain with great exuberance, shouting words which he afterwards
+discovered meant, "We are rejoiced! We are rejoiced!" The valiant captain,
+however, was much more pleased with the hearty good-will of their
+intentions than in the manner of its expression, inasmuch as they had
+transferred a good portion of the war paint from their own faces to his.
+Lewis now brought up his companions and entered upon a long and friendly
+conference with the chief of the party, whose name was Cameahwait. Captain
+Lewis, as the representative of the great American nation, set forth to
+the eager listeners about him, a glowing report as to the benevolence of
+the Great Father at Washington, and his desire that his brothers of the
+West should come into friendly relations with him and trade their furs for
+the beads and blankets and knives which the Indians so highly prize. He
+also explained to them that they would receive from his government guns
+and ammunition which would enable them to cope with the dreaded Sioux or
+the pitiless Blackfeet. Captain Lewis also greatly aroused the curiosity
+of these Indians by indicating to them that he had with him a woman of
+their tribe, and also a man who was perfectly black and yet not painted.
+He now made a proposition to Cameahwait to go back with him and his
+companions to the forks of the Missouri where they had left the main party
+with their goods and boats. Cameahwait very gladly agreed to do this and
+also to provide them with horses for the journey westward to the navigable
+waters of the Columbia.
+
+[Illustration: Capt. Robert Gray.]
+
+[Illustration: The _Columbia Rediviva_.]
+
+After a journey of several days upon the back trail, the party found
+themselves again at the forks of the Missouri, but, somewhat to their
+surprise and consternation, the main party was not there. The Indians at
+first were very much excited, and, believing that they had been deceived
+and that the white men were enticing them to destruction, they were at the
+point of wreaking vengeance upon them. But with great tact and boldness,
+Lewis gave the chief his gun and ammunition, telling him that if it proved
+that he had been a deceiver, they might instantly kill him. Reassured, the
+Indians proceeded onward and in a short time they could descry the boats,
+making their way slowly up the impetuous stream toward a bold promontory
+where the Indians were stationed. In the bow of the foremost boat was
+seated Sacajawea, clad in her bright red blanket, and gazing eagerly at
+the group of Indians, thinking it possible that they might be of her own
+tribe. As the boat approached the band, the keen-sighted little Indian
+woman soon perceived that these people were indeed of her own Shoshone
+tribe. Quickly disembarking, she made her way to them, when suddenly her
+eyes fell upon the chief, Cameahwait. Then to the astonishment of the
+white men who were with her, she broke forth suddenly into a torrent of
+tears which were soon changed into joyful smiles as the chief, with almost
+as much emotion as herself, rushed forward to embrace her. She then
+explained to Captain Lewis that Cameahwait was her own brother, whom she
+had not seen since, as a little girl, she had been seized by the Mandans
+and carried into captivity.
+
+Of course there was now the kindliest feeling between the party of
+explorers and the Indians. They found everything that they needed, horses,
+provisions, and guides, placed at their disposal. They were at that time,
+as would be seen by an inspection of the map, at the head waters of Salmon
+River. They hoped that they might find a route down that powerful stream
+to navigable water. But the Indians assured them that the river was white
+with foam for many miles and disappeared in a chain of terrific snowy
+mountains. It became necessary, therefore, to find a more northerly route,
+and on the last day of August, with twenty-nine horses, having bidden a
+hearty good-bye to the hospitable Shoshones, they turned north-westward
+and soon became entangled in the savage ridges and defiles, already
+spotted with snow, of the Bitter Root Mountains.
+
+They were at this time among some of the upper branches of the second
+largest tributary of the Columbia, named by them Clark's Fork, though at
+the present time more commonly known by the more rhythmic title of Pend
+Oreille. After several days of the most difficult, and indeed dangerous,
+journeying of their entire trip, they abandoned the northern route, turned
+southward, and soon reached the wild and beautiful stream which they
+called the Kooskooskie, commonly known to modern times as the Clearwater,
+one of the finest of all the fine rivers of Idaho, the "Gem of the
+Mountains."
+
+But they were not yet by any means clear of danger. The country still
+frowned on them with the same forbidding crags, and the same blinding snow
+storms as before. They were approaching the starvation point. The craggy
+precipices were marked with almost daily accidents to men and beasts.
+Their only food was the flesh of their precious horses. Under these
+harassing circumstances, it was decided that the wisest thing was for
+Captain Clark to take six of his best men and press rapidly forward in
+search of game and a more favourable country. After a hard journey of
+twenty miles, he found himself upon the crest of a towering cliff, from
+which stretched in front a vast open plain. This was the great plain, now
+covered with wheat-fields and orchards, lying east and north of the
+present city of Lewiston, Idaho. Having made their way down the
+declivities of the Bitter Root Mountains to the prairie, where they found
+a climate that seemed almost tropical after the bitter cold of the high
+mountains, the advance guard camped and waited for the main party to come
+up.
+
+Rejoicing at their release from the distressing conditions of their
+passage of the Bitter Root Mountains, they passed onward to a beautiful
+mountain-enclosed valley, which must have been in the near vicinity of
+what is known as the Kamiah Valley of the present time. Here they found
+themselves with a large body of Indians who became known subsequently as
+the Nez Perces. These Indians appeared to be the most honest, intelligent,
+and attractive they had yet met,--eager to assist them, kind and helpful,
+although shrewd and business-like in their trading.
+
+The Nez Perces imparted to them the joyful news that the Great River was
+not far distant. Seeing the Clearwater to be a fine, navigable stream, the
+explorers determined to abandon the weary land journey and once more
+commit their fortunes to the waters. They left their horses with the Nez
+Perces, asking that they should meet them at that point in the following
+spring when they expected to be on their return trip. The scrupulous
+fidelity with which the Nez Perces carried out their trust is some
+evidence of the oft-made assertion that the treachery characteristic of
+the Indians was learned afterwards from the whites.
+
+With five large and well-filled canoes, and with a good supply of eatables
+and all the other necessaries of life, the explorers now cast themselves
+upon the clear, swift current of the Kooskooskie, and on the 10th of
+October reached that striking and interesting place where the beautiful
+modern town of Lewiston is located, at the junction of the Clearwater and
+the Snake. The turbid, angry, sullen Snake, so striking a contrast with
+the lesser stream, received from the explorers the name of Kimooenim, its
+Indian name. Subsequently they christened it Lewis's Fork, but the still
+less attractive name of Snake is the one by which it is universally known.
+
+The journey of a hundred and twenty miles from the junction of the
+Clearwater and the Snake to the junction of the latter stream with the
+mighty Columbia, seems to have been a calm and uneventful journey, though
+the explorers record every manner of event, whether important or
+unimportant. Knowledge of their approach seems to have reached the Indian
+world, and when on October 16th they reached the point where the modern
+city of Pasco is located, they were met by a regular procession of two
+hundred Indians. The two great rivers were then at their lowest point in
+the year, and they found by measurement that the Columbia was 960 yards in
+width and the Snake, 575 yards. In the glimmering haze of the pleasant
+October day they noted how the vast, bare prairie stretched southward
+until it was broken by the rounded summits of the Blue Mountains. To their
+astonishment, they found that the Sohulks, who lived at the junction of
+the rivers, so differed from other Indians that the men were content with
+one wife and that they would actually assist her in the drudgery of the
+family life. After several days spent in rest and getting fish, which
+seemed to throng the river in almost countless numbers, they resumed their
+journey upon the magnificent flood of the Columbia. Soon after passing
+what we now call the Umatilla Highland, they caught their first glimpse,
+clear-cut against the horizon of the south-west, of the bold cone of Mt.
+Hood, glistening with its eternal snows. Landing upon the broad prairie
+near where Umatilla is now located, Captain Clark shot a crane and a duck.
+He then perceived a group of Indians who were almost paralysed with terror
+and yet able to make their way with considerable expedition to a little
+group of tepees. Having entered one of these, Captain Clark discovered
+thirty-two Indians, men, women, and children, all of whom seemed to be in
+the greatest terror, wailing and wringing their hands. Endeavouring by
+kind looks and gestures to soothe their perturbation, Captain Clark held
+up a burning glass to catch a stray sunbeam with which to light his pipe.
+Whereupon the consternation of the Indians was redoubled, to be soothed
+only by the arrival of the two Indian guides who were accompanying the
+party. The terrified Indians explained to the guides that they knew that
+Captain Clark must have some bad medicine about him, for he had dropped
+out of the sky with a dead crane and a duck, accompanied by a terrible
+noise.
+
+[Illustration: Mt. Hood from Lost Lake. Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.]
+
+The Indians being now convinced that he was a mortal man, and, moreover,
+having heard the sound of the violin which the negro servant carried with
+him, became so enamoured with the strangers that they stayed up with them
+all night, and in the morning collected by hundreds to bid them good-bye.
+
+The Indians had now given them to understand that in a short time they
+would reach the place which they knew as "Timm." This seems to have been
+an Indian word for falls. It still appears in the name Tumwater Falls
+applied to the falls at Celilo on the Columbia. A weird, savage place this
+proved to be; crags of basalt, thrust through the soil, like clenched
+hands, seemed almost to grasp the rushing river. Making several portages,
+the voyagers reached that extraordinary place now called The Dalles, or
+the "big chute," where all the waters of the Columbia are squeezed into a
+crack only a hundred and fifty feet in width. The River, in fact, is
+"turned on edge." The explorers, finding the shore so rough that it was
+difficult to carry their boats over, steered boldly through that witch's
+caldron. Though they must have been carried with frightful rapidity
+through the boiling stream, they reached the end of the cataract without
+accident. At this point they began to be aware of the fact that they were
+reaching the sphere of the white traders from the ocean, for they began to
+see blankets, axes, brass kettles, and other articles of civilised
+manufacture. The Indians, too, were more saucy, suspicious, and
+treacherous than those of the upper country.
+
+Being launched upon the calm, deep flood of the River below The Dalles,
+they observed the phenomenon of the submerged forest, which at a low state
+of water is still conspicuous. They correctly inferred that this indicated
+a damming up of the River at some recent time. They thought indeed that it
+could not have been more than twenty years previous. We know, however,
+that submerged trees or piles, as indicated by remains of old Roman
+wharves in Britain, may remain intact for hundreds of years. This place on
+the Columbia is, however, one of the most interesting of its many
+interesting phenomena. It is evident that within very recent times,
+geologically speaking, there was a prodigious rock-slide from the
+mountains which closed the River, producing the cataract of the Cascades
+and raising the River above, some forty feet.
+
+Here the explorers had their last portage. On the second day of November
+they reached the foot of the Cascades and perceived the movement of the
+tide, which made it plain to them that the ocean was near at hand. Yet, in
+reality, it was much farther than they thought, for the majestic lower
+River extends one hundred and sixty miles from the foot of the last
+cataract to the Pacific. It is interesting to notice comments made by the
+explorers upon the green and fertile islands at the lower end of the
+Cascades, and that spired and turreted volcanic cliff which they called
+Beacon Rock, but which we know now as Castle Rock.
+
+The rest of the journey of Lewis and Clark was a calm floating down the
+tranquil flood of the lower Columbia in the midst of the fog and clouds
+which at that season of the year generally embrace all objects. On
+November 7th the mist suddenly broke away before them, the bold
+mountainous shores vanished in front, and, through the parted headlands,
+they looked forth into the expanse of the ocean.
+
+[Illustration: Eliot Glacier, Mt. Hood. Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.]
+
+Their journey was now ended. They had demonstrated the possibility of
+crossing the continent and of linking together the waters of the Missouri
+and the Columbia.
+
+The winter of 1805-06 was spent in log buildings at a point named by the
+explorers, Fort Clatsop, situated on the Lewis and Clark River at the
+south side of the Columbia a few miles from the present site of Astoria.
+The location of this fort has been identified in modern times, as has also
+the location of the salt cairn, upon what is now known as the Seaside
+Beach, commemorated by an inscription.
+
+One of the interesting little human touches in the narrative of Captain
+Lewis describes the casting of a whale upon Clatsop Beach and the journey
+of the party to see the great marine curiosity, as well as to secure some
+of its fat and blubber. The Indian woman, Sacajawea, was to be left behind
+to keep camp while they were all at the beach, but she put up the earnest
+plea that inasmuch as she had never seen any such curiosity as the "big
+fish," and as she had journeyed all those weary miles from the country of
+the Mandans, it seemed hard that she should be denied the privilege of
+satisfying her eyes with a view of the whale. Lewis remarks that the
+request of the poor woman seemed so reasonable that they at once fixed up
+camp in such manner that it could be left, and took her with them, to her
+intense satisfaction.
+
+After four months spent in the fogs and mists of the coast, and without
+seeing any of the ships which the Indians said were accustomed to come in
+considerable numbers during the spring and summer, the party turned their
+faces homeward on the 23d of March, 1806. The commander posted upon the
+fort a notice which read as follows:
+
+    The object of this last is that through the medium of some civilised
+    person who may see the same, it may be made known to the world that
+    the party consisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed
+    and who were sent out by the Government of the United States to
+    explore the interior of the continent of North America, did penetrate
+    the same by way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, to the discharge
+    of the latter into the Pacific Ocean, at which they arrived on the
+    14th day of November, 1805, and departed on their return to the United
+    States by the same route by which they had come.
+
+They also gave to the chiefs of the Clatsops and Chinooks certificates, to
+which they attached great importance and which were afterwards exhibited
+to other explorers, setting forth the just and hospitable treatment which
+these Indians had accorded the party.
+
+The return from Fort Clatsop to the Missouri was in the main a pleasant
+and successful journey without extraordinary event, except the fact that
+upon their return they discovered the Willamette River, which, strange to
+say, had eluded their observation on their journey down the River in
+November. The journal contains the somewhat quaint statement that the
+chief cultivable region which they discovered in Oregon was Wapatoo
+Island, now known as Sauvie's Island, at the mouth of the Willamette. They
+express the conviction that that fertile tract of country and the region
+adjoining might sometime support a population of fifty thousand people.
+They seem to regard this as an extraordinary prophecy of prosperity.
+Inasmuch as there are already over four times that number of people in the
+city of Portland, it would seem that Lewis and Clark were hardly "boomers"
+in the modern sense of the word.
+
+One interesting thing in connection with the Lewis and Clark expedition
+receives special emphasis from them in the account of their return
+journey, and that is, the faithfulness, honesty, and devotion of the
+Indians when entrusted with any charge, as the care of horses or canoes.
+This character of the Indians was so marked that one can hardly avoid the
+conclusion that the subsequent troubles with the Indians were due very
+largely to abuse by the whites.
+
+No better summary can be given of the scope of this historic journey than
+that by Captain Lewis himself in his journal. He says:
+
+    The road by which we went out by way of the Missouri to its head is
+    three thousand ninety-six miles; thence by land by way of Lewis River
+    over to Clark's River and down that to the entrance of Traveller's
+    Rest Creek, where all the roads from different routes meet; thence
+    across the rugged part of the Rocky Mountains to the navigable waters
+    of the Columbia, three hundred and ninety-eight miles, thence down the
+    river six hundred and forty miles to the Pacific Ocean, making a total
+    distance of four thousand one hundred and thirty-four miles. On our
+    return in 1806 we reduced the distance from the Mississippi to the
+    Pacific Ocean to three thousand five hundred and fifty-five miles.
+
+The safe return of the explorers to their homes created a sensation
+throughout the United States and the world. Leaders and men were suitably
+rewarded. Though the expedition was not marked by many remarkable
+adventures or dramatic events, and though the narration given by the
+explorers is of a plain and simple kind with no attempt at literary
+ornamentation, yet occurring, as the expedition did, at such a peculiar
+juncture in our history, and having such an effect to bridge the chasm
+between the old time and the new, this Lewis and Clark expedition has
+continued to receive, and justly, more attention than any other journey in
+our history. President Jefferson, paying a tribute to Captain Lewis in
+1813, expressed himself thus:
+
+    Never did a similar event excite more joy throughout the United
+    States; the humblest of its citizens have taken a lively interest in
+    the issue of this journey and looked with impatience for the
+    information it would furnish. Nothing short of the official journals
+    of this extraordinary and interesting journey will exhibit the
+    importance of the service, the courage, devotion, zeal, and
+    perseverance, under circumstances calculated to discourage, which
+    animated this little band of heroes, throughout the long dangerous,
+    and tedious travel.
+
+The expedition of Lewis and Clark may justly be considered as constituting
+the first steps across the wilderness. The breadth of the American
+continent was now known. The general relations of its rivers and mountain
+systems and prairies were understood. Something of its prodigality of
+resources became set forth to the world. A dim consciousness of the
+connection of this vast Pacific domain with the progress of American
+destiny appeared to our grandfathers. And although the wilderness
+traversed by this complete expedition did not come into possession of the
+United States for many years, yet it might well be said that our
+subsequent acquirement of it was due to the Lewis and Clark expedition.
+
+Of the many remarkable explorations which followed, with all of their
+adventure and tragedy, we cannot here speak. For several years all the
+expeditions to the far West were the outgrowth of the fur-trade. Most
+remarkable of these early journeys was that of the Hunt party which was
+the land division of the great Astor movement to establish the Pacific Fur
+Company. That company was established by John Jacob Astor of New York for
+the purpose of making a bold and far-reaching attempt to control the
+fur-trade of the Pacific Coast in the interests of the United States.
+While the sea division was upon its journey around Cape Horn, the land
+division was in process of organisation at St. Louis. Wilson Price Hunt,
+the commander of this division, was the second partner in the Astor
+company. He had been merchandising for some years at St. Louis, and had
+become impressed with the financial profits of the fur-trade as well as
+with the vast possibilities of American development on the continent. Hunt
+was a fine type of the pioneer promoter of that age. Brave, humane,
+cheerful, and resolute, he appears to us as the very flower of the
+adventurous Argonauts who were searching for the seal and beaver fleeces
+of the far West.
+
+With Hunt were associated four other partners of the expedition, Crooks,
+McKenzie, Miller, and McCellan. Accompanying the party were two English
+naturalists, Bradbury and Nuttall, who did the first scientific study of
+the Rocky Mountain region. There were forty Canadian _voyageurs_ whose
+duties consisted of rowing, transporting, cooking, and general drudgery.
+The remaining twelve of the party consisted of a group of American hunters
+and trappers, the leader of whom was a Virginian named John Day. The
+company was in all respects fitted out most bountifully.
+
+There were at that time two great classes of trappers. The first and most
+numerous were the Canadian _voyageurs_. These were mainly of French
+descent, many of them being half-breeds. Almost amphibious by nature and
+training, gay and amiable in disposition, with true French vivacity and
+ingenuity, gliding over every harsh experience with laugh and song,
+possessed of quick sympathies and humane instincts which enabled them to
+readily find the best side of the Indians,--these French _voyageurs_
+constituted a most interesting as well as indispensable class in the
+trapper's business.
+
+The free trappers were an entirely different class of men. They were
+usually American by birth, Virginia and Kentucky being the homes of most
+of them. Patient and indefatigable in their work of trapping, yet, when on
+their annual trip to the towns, given to wild dissipation and savage
+revellings, indifferent to sympathy or company, harsh and cruel to the
+Indians, bold and overbearing, with blood always in their eyes, thunder in
+their voices, and guns in their hands, yet underneath all of their harsh
+exterior having noble hearts, could they but be reached, these now
+vanished trappers have gone to a place in history alongside of the old
+Spartans and the followers of Pizarro and Cortez in Spanish conquest.
+
+Of the many adventures of the Hunt party on the journey up the Missouri,
+we cannot speak. For some reason, although taking a more direct route than
+did Lewis and Clark, and having, to all appearance, a better equipped
+party, they did not make so good time. Guided by Indians, they crossed
+chain after chain of mountains, supposing each to be the summit, only to
+find another yet to succeed. At last on the 15th of September, they stood
+upon a lofty eminence over which they could gaze both eastward and
+westward. Scanning attentively the western horizon, the guide pointed out
+three shining peaks, whose bases, he told them, were touched by a
+tributary of the Columbia River. These peaks are now known as the Three
+Tetons.
+
+And now the party set forth upon the long descent of the western slope,
+passing mountain after mountain and stream after stream, some of the way
+in boats which the _voyageurs_ made from the green timber of the forests,
+and much of the way being obliged to carry their effects around cataracts
+and rapids, and thus losing much time. Nevertheless, they found one long
+stretch of over a hundred miles upon the upper Snake which they navigated
+with comparative ease. But having reached what is now known as the Seven
+Devils country in South-western Idaho, they found themselves in a chain of
+rapids and precipitous bluffs where neither boats nor horses, apparently
+nothing but wings, could be of service. This was in fact the beginning of
+over a hundred miles of the most ragged and inaccessible region upon the
+whole course of the Snake River, a region which even to this day contains
+neither road nor steamboat route, and by which the great State of Idaho is
+separated into two divisions, neither directly accessible to the other by
+any ordinary modes of travel.
+
+After a forty-mile tramp up and down the river, Hunt decided that the only
+way to escape the difficulties with which they were surrounded, was to
+divide the party into four divisions, hoping that one of them might find
+game and a way out of the forbidding volcanic wastes in which they were
+beleaguered. Two of the parties soon returned. One, being in charge of
+McKenzie, continued upon its course northward and reached the mouth of the
+Columbia, without ever again seeing the main party.
+
+During the weeks that followed, the main party, lost amid the great
+mountains which lie eastward from the present vicinity of Baker City and
+Wallowa Lake, suffered all the torments of famine and cold. In places the
+river ran through volcanic sluiceways, roaring and raging; in some cases,
+although within hearing, yet entirely inaccessible, so that although
+within sound of its angry raving, the travellers were often obliged to lie
+down with tongues parched and swollen for lack of water. The party applied
+to this long volcanic "chute" the name of the Devil's Scuttle-hole, and to
+the river they applied the name _La Riviere Maudite Enragee_, or "Accursed
+Mad River."
+
+The lives of the party were evidently at stake. In the emergency Hunt
+determined to divide his force into two divisions, one on the north and
+one on the south side of the river. From the 9th of November until the
+first part of December they urged on this dismal and heart-sickening
+march. They passed a few wretched Indian camps where they managed to
+secure dogs for food, and once they got a few horses. The frightened and
+half-starved Indians could give them no clear information as to the
+location of the Great River, but they signified that they supposed it to
+be yet a long way off. The party was evidently approaching something, for
+gigantic snowy mountains now loomed dimly through the winter mists.
+Finding it impossible to make headway against blinding snowstorms and up
+the icy crags, they turned their course down to the river itself and made
+a cheerless camp. In the morning they were startled by seeing upon the
+opposite side of the river, a group of men more wretched and desolate than
+themselves. It soon appeared that this was the other party, which had
+entirely failed in finding either food or guidance from the Indians.
+Finding it necessary that some provision should be made for these dying
+men, Hunt constructed a rude canoe from the limbs of trees and the skin of
+one of the horses. In this crazy craft one of the daring Canadian
+_voyageurs_ made his way with some of the horse meat, which, poor as it
+was, was sufficient to save life for the time.
+
+With their little remaining strength, they pressed on down the river until
+they reached another small village of the wretched Snake Indians. Urging
+these Indians to provide for them a guide, and at last securing one by the
+most bounteous offers of rewards, Hunt succeeded in gathering all of his
+party together, with the exception of six sick men whom they were obliged
+to leave to the tender mercies of the Indians.
+
+For another fortnight, the cold and hungry party floundered painfully
+through the snow across the rugged mountains which lie between what we now
+know as the Powder River Valley and the Grande Ronde. Reaching a lofty
+mountain height on the last day of December, they looked far down into a
+fair and snowless prairie, bathed in sunshine and appearing to the
+winter-worn travellers like a gleam of summer. Moreover, they soon
+discerned a group of Indian lodges which they judged were well supplied
+with dogs and horses. Thither hastening eagerly, they soon found
+themselves in a beautiful valley, which from their description must have
+been the Grande Ronde Valley. Beautiful at all times, it must have seemed
+trebly so to these ragged and famished wanderers.
+
+The next morning the new year of 1812 shone in upon them bright and
+cheerful, as if to make amends for the stern severity of the outgoing
+year. And now the Canadians insisted upon having their New Year's holiday.
+Not even death and famine could rob the light-hearted _voyageurs_ of their
+festivals. So with dance and song and with dog meat, roasted, boiled,
+fried, and fricasseed, they met the newly-crowned year with their Gallic
+happiness and abandon.
+
+The Indians assured them that they could reach the Great River within
+three days. But they found it twice that, and their way led across another
+lofty chain of snowy mountains, before the canopy of clouds which hung
+above them parted. There, looking far down from their snowy eyre, they
+beheld the boundless and sunny plains of the Great River. Swiftly
+descending the slopes of the mountains, they emerged upon that finest land
+of all Eastern Oregon, the plains of the Umatilla. Here they found the
+tribe of the Tushepaw Indians with thirty-four lodges and two hundred
+horses. More significant than these to Hunt were axes, kettles, and other
+implements of white construction, indicating that these Indians had
+already come into communication with the traders upon the lower River. In
+answer to his eager questions, the Tushepaws informed him that the Great
+River was but two days distant and that a small party of white men had
+just descended it. Being now certain that this was the advance guard which
+had left him at the Devil's Scuttle-hole, Hunt felt sure that they were
+safe and was therefore relieved of one great anxiety.
+
+After a few days' rest upon the pleasant prairies and in the comparatively
+genial climate of the Umatilla, the party set forth upon horses obtained
+from the Tushepaws, and after a pleasant ride of two days across the
+rolling prairie, they beheld flowing at their feet, a majestic stream,
+deep and blue, a mile in width, sweeping toward the sunset, evidently the
+Columbia. At the great falls of the River, known to the Indians as the
+Timm or the Tumwater, just above what we now call Dalles City, Hunt
+exchanged his horses for canoes. This last stage of two hundred and twenty
+miles by boat down the River, was calm and peaceful and a refreshing rest
+after the distress and disaster of their winter journey through the
+mountains. Not till the 15th of February, however, did they reach the
+newly christened town of Astoria. Rounding the bluffs of Tongue Point,
+they beheld with full hearts the Stars and Stripes floating over the only
+civilised abode west of St. Louis. Westward they saw the parted headlands
+between which the River pours its floods into the ocean. As the boats drew
+near the shore, the whole population, trappers, sailors, and Indians, came
+down to meet them. Foremost in the crowd they saw the members of the party
+which had gone on ahead through the Snake River Mountains. Having had no
+hope that Hunt and his men could survive the famine and the cold, these
+members of the advance guard were the more rejoiced to see them. The
+Canadians, with their French vivacity, rushed into each other's arms,
+sobbing and hugging like so many schoolgirls. Even the nonchalant
+Americans and the stiff-jawed Scotchmen smiled and gave themselves up to
+the gladness of the hour. The next two or three days were mainly devoted
+to eating and telling stories.
+
+As we have seen, they had lost several of their number from starvation and
+drowning along the banks of the Snake River. They had also left six sick
+men with the Indians in the heart of the mountains. They had little hope
+of ever seeing these again, but the next summer the party on their way up
+the Columbia River, saw two wretched looking beings, naked and haggard,
+wandering on the river bank near the mouth of the Umatilla. Stopping to
+investigate, they discovered that these were Day and Crooks, the leaders
+of the party which they had left behind. Their forlorn plight was relieved
+with food and clothes, and, having been taken into the boat, they related
+their dismal tale. It appeared that they had been provided sufficiently by
+the Indians to sustain their lives through the winter. In the spring they
+had left the Canadians among the Indians, and had set forth in the hope of
+reaching the Great River. But having reached The Dalles, they had been
+robbed of rifles and ammunition, stripped of their clothing, and driven
+forth into the wilderness. They were almost at the point of a final
+surrender to ill-fortune when they beheld the rescuing boat. So, with
+joyful hearts, they turned their boat's prow to Astoria, which they
+reached in safety. But poor Day never regained his health. His mind was
+shattered by the hardships of his journey, and he soon pined away and
+died. The barren and rugged shores of the John Day River in Eastern Oregon
+take on an added interest in view of the sad story of the brave hunter who
+discovered them, and who wandered in destitution for so many days beside
+them. Strange to say, the four Canadians who remained among the Indians
+were afterwards found alive, though utterly destitute of all things. Hence
+it appears that the loss of life in this difficult journey was not great.
+
+The journeys here narrated may be considered as covering what we have
+designated as the first steps across the wilderness. Within a few years,
+many parties of trappers, explorers, and adventurers, with some
+scientists, and a little later, parties of missionaries, made their way
+over the great plains, through the defiles of the mountains, and down the
+barren shores of the Snake River to the Columbia and the sea. Each party
+had its special experiences, and made its special contribution to
+geographical or commercial advancement. But to the parties led by Lewis
+and Clark and by Hunt, we must accord the greatest meed of praise for
+having broken the first pathways across the continent and for having
+linked the two oceans by the footsteps of civilised men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The Fur-Traders, their Bateaux, and their Stations
+
+    Importance of the Fur-trade as Connected with all Other Parts of the
+    History--Fur-hunters Compared with Gold-hunters--Sea-otter--Ledyard's
+    Exploration--The European Inaugurators of the Trade--Beginnings of the
+    American Trade--The Great British Companies and their Struggles with
+    the French--Mackenzie's Journey across the Continent--Thompson's
+    Descent of the Columbia--Union of the Two Great Canadian
+    Companies--The American Fur Companies--Henry's Fort--The Winship
+    Enterprise on the River--John Jacob Astor and the Pacific Fur
+    Company--Rivalry with the North-westers--Arrangements for Expeditions
+    by Land and Sea, and the Personnel of these--Voyage of the _Tonquin_
+    and her Disastrous Approach of the River--Founding of
+    Astoria--Appearance of Thompson and the North-westers--Interior
+    Expedition and Founding of Fort Okonogan--McDougall, the Smallpox
+    Chief and Bridegroom of the Indian Princess--Evil Tidings in Regard to
+    the _Tonquin_--Other Disasters--War of 1812 and Sale of Astoria to the
+    North-westers--Restoration of Astoria to the Americans--Monopolisation
+    of the River by the Hudson's Bay Company--Their Expeditions--Hard Lot
+    of Madame Dorion and her Children--Adventures of Alexander Ross--The
+    Forts and General Plan of Work--Fort Vancouver and its Remarkable
+    Advantages--Dr. McLoughlin, or the "White Eagle"--Profits of the
+    Fur-trade--The Canoes and Bateaux and the _Voyageurs_--The Routes of
+    the Brigades--Later Americans.
+
+
+As the reader will doubtless already have discovered, we are presenting
+the history of the River topically rather than chronologically. The
+various great stages of progress, discovery by sea, discovery by land,
+fur-trade, Indian wars, missionary undertakings, international contests,
+beginnings of steamboat navigation, and settlement, overlap each other,
+and each topic compels us in a measure to anticipate its successors. This
+is especially true of the topic treated of in this chapter.
+
+The fur-trade was an important factor in the eras of discovery both by
+land and by sea, in the Indian wars and in the era of settlement, while
+the strife of nations for the possession of the land of Oregon is almost a
+history of the fur companies and their international policies. Remembering
+this synthetic nature of these features of our history, we shall
+endeavour, with as little repetition as possible, to present a coherent
+picture of that great era of the fur-traders.
+
+Without doubt one of the earliest uses to which man has put the lower
+animals is that of clothing his body in their captured skins. The
+acquisition of furs has been a special feature of the colder climes. It is
+obviously also a feature of discovery and conquest, for it is the
+wilderness only which yields any considerable number of fur-producing
+animals. Thus navigation, commerce, discovery, invention, economics,
+finally international wars and policies, have been rooted to a large
+degree in this primal business. The fur-hunters have held the hunters of
+gold and precious stones and spicery a close race in the rank of world
+movers. Indeed it may well be questioned whether results of greater moment
+to humanity have not proceeded from the quest for furs than from that for
+gold.
+
+The Spaniards expended their energies in the gold and silver hunt in
+Mexico and Peru and annihilated the races of those lands in their pitiless
+rapacity. The other great exploring nations of the sixteenth century,
+especially the French, while not indifferent to the possibility of
+encountering the precious metals, found more certain and permanent results
+in the less feverish and dazzling pursuit of the wild animals of the
+wilderness. Neither the hunters for gold nor those for peltries were the
+state-builders and home-builders without whom our American Union would not
+exist. But they were the avant-couriers of both. Our land of Oregon has
+had the peculiar fortune of being opened by both for both.
+
+China furnished the most active and convenient market for furs to those
+who secured their supplies on the Pacific Coast of North America. The
+Russians were the first Europeans to enter the Chinese market, and they
+began their voyages as early as 1741.
+
+The sea-otter seems to have had its chief habitat on the Pacific shore
+from Oregon to Alaska, and, as the ships of all nations began to crowd
+upon the location of the fabled Strait of Anian, the trade with the
+natives for these precious furs became constantly augmented, until the
+curious and interesting creatures, so fatally attractive, were added to
+the long list of "lower creatures" whom the greed of the "higher
+creatures" has exterminated. A book by Coxe published in London in 1787
+first made known to the English-speaking people the rich profits of the
+Russians from the transportation of the sea-otter skins to China. He
+instanced a case of a profit of $50,000 from a single cargo. It had,
+however, been known in 1785 from the report of the voyage of Captain Cook
+that the North-west Coast of America contained a new source of wealth from
+the accumulation of these furs by the Indians and their eager desire to
+trade them for trinkets and implements of civilised manufacture.
+
+The first American to comprehend the greatness of the fur-trade on the
+North-west Coast of the Pacific, both as a means of profit to himself and
+as a patriotic impulse to direct his own nation into the channels of
+westward expansion, was John Ledyard. Thomas Jefferson and John Paul Jones
+became deeply interested in Ledyard's extravagant hopes of future wealth
+and glory, but all his efforts came to naught, and in 1788 this brilliant
+adventurer, just on the eve of setting out to explore the interior of
+Africa, suddenly put an end to his own life at Cairo, Egypt. Ledyard
+should always be remembered by his countrymen, for, though his glowing
+visions were unfulfilled, he was an important link in the great chain
+which bound Oregon to our own country.
+
+During these same years, several Englishmen, already noted in the chapter
+on discovery, Portlock, Dixon, Hanna, Barclay, and Meares, were actively
+engaged in the fur-trade, while the voyages of La Perouse and Marchand
+carried the flag of France on the same quest, and Spain's once illustrious
+emblem of world dominion was borne by Quadra, Valdes, Galiano, Fidalgo,
+Quimper, Caamano, and several others. While these explorers all were
+impelled in part by national pride and diplomacy, the hope of sharing the
+spoils of the sea-otter droves was the chief lure to the tempestuous seas
+of the North Pacific.
+
+In Bullfinch's _Oregon and El Dorado_ is a very interesting narration of
+the inception of the American part in the fur-trade of Oregon. In a
+building known as the Coolidge Building in Boston a company were gathered
+together in 1787 discussing the reports, then first made public, of Cook's
+voyages. Mr. Joseph Barrell, a rich merchant of Boston, was much impressed
+with Cook's account of the chances of barter with the Indians for furs and
+the disposal of them in China for yet more profitable cargoes of teas,
+silks, and other characteristic commodities of that land. As a result of
+this conference, a company was formed in Boston to prosecute such
+enterprise, the members of the company, Messrs. Barrell, Brown, Bulfinch,
+Darby, Hatch, and Pintard, being among the foremost of the business men in
+Boston in that good year of the creation of the American Constitution.
+
+The enterprising Yankees rapidly drew to the front, so that during the
+years from 1790 to 1818, the records show one hundred and eight American
+vessels regularly engaged in the business, while only twenty-two English,
+with a few Portuguese and French are found. It should, of course be
+remembered that the tremendous strife of the Napoleonic Wars was
+engrossing the attention of European nations during that time. So well
+known did the Boston navigators become in that period that the common name
+of Americans used by the Oregon Indians was "Bostons." Robert Gray, the
+discoverer of the Columbia River, was fitted out by Bulfinch and others of
+the first Boston Company. During the period under consideration the
+profits of the traffic were usually very great, though variable, sometimes
+actual losses being incurred, while disaster from wreck, storm, scurvy,
+and murderous Indians was frequent. During the two years, 1786 and 1787,
+if Dixon is to be followed, there were sold in Canton five thousand eight
+hundred sea-otter hides for $160,700. Swan figures that with the four
+years ending with 1802, forty-eight thousand five hundred skins were sold.
+Sturgis states that he knew a capital of $50,000 to yield a gross income
+of $284,000. He relates that he had collected as high as six thousand fine
+skins in a single voyage and once secured five hundred and sixty of the
+best quality in one day. The Indians, however, learned to become very
+expert traders, and as they discovered the eagerness with which the whites
+sought their furs, they raised the price. They became, moreover, very
+capricious and unreliable, so that the phenomenal profits could no longer
+be obtained.
+
+The stage of the history of the fur-trade of which we have thus far spoken
+may be called its first era of a free-for-all rush to the new seas, with
+no vast moneyed interests in any position of leadership. But commercial
+conditions were already in existence which were bound to reverse the
+situation.
+
+Great operators, gigantic companies, foreshadowings of the great trusts of
+the present, with monopolistic aims, were seeking the ear of the British
+Government, while enterprises, larger, though not so monopolistic, were
+rapidly forming in the United States. The great monopolies of Europe had
+indeed existed long prior to the period of the Oregon fur-traders. As far
+back as the beginning of the sixteenth century, De Monts, Pontgrave,
+Champlain, and other great French explorers had secured monopolies on the
+fur-trade from Louis XIII. and his minister, Richelieu. Later La Salle,
+Hennepin, D'Iberville, and others had the same advantages. The St.
+Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the upper Mississippi were the great
+"preserve" of these great concessionaires. The English and their American
+Colonists set themselves in battle array against the monopolistic Bourbon
+methods of handling the vast domain which the genius and enterprise of De
+Monts and Champlain had won for France, with the result that upon the
+heights of Abraham the Fleur-de-Lis was lowered before the Cross of St.
+George, and North America became English instead of Gallic, and one of the
+world's milestones was set for good. Then by one of those beautiful
+ironies of history which baffle all prescience, victorious Britain
+violated the principles of her own conquest and adopted the methods of
+Bourbon tyranny and monopoly, with the result that another milestone was
+set on the highway of liberty and the new continent became American
+instead of European.
+
+But out of the struggles of that century, French, English, and American,
+out of the final distribution of territory, by which England retained
+Canada and with it a large French and Indian population, mingled with
+English and Scotch,--out of these curious comminglings, economic,
+commercial, political, religious, and ethnic, grew the great English fur
+companies, whose history was largely wrought out on the shores of the
+Columbia, and from whose juxtaposition with the American State-builder the
+romance and epic grandeur of the history of the River largely comes.
+
+Many enterprises were started by the French and English in the seventeenth
+century, but the Hudson's Bay Company became the Goliath of them all. The
+first charter of this gigantic organisation was granted in 1670 by Charles
+II. to Prince Rupert and seventeen others, with a capital stock of ten
+thousand five hundred pounds. From this small beginning, the profits were
+so great that, notwithstanding the loss of two hundred thousand pounds
+from the French wars during the latter part of the century, the Company
+declared dividends of from twenty-five to fifty per cent.
+
+The field of operations was gradually extended from the south-eastern
+regions contiguous to Hudson's Bay until it embraced the vast and dreary
+expanses of snowy prairie traversed by the Saskatchewan, the Athabasca,
+the Peace, and finally the Mackenzie. Many of the greatest expeditions by
+land under British auspices which resulted in great geographical
+discoveries were primarily designed for the expansion of the fur-trade.
+
+Just at the critical moment, both for the great Canadian Fur Company, as
+well as for discovery and acquisition in the region of the Columbia, a
+most important and remarkable champion entered the lists. This was the
+North-west Fur Company of Montreal. It was one of the legitimate
+consequences of the treaty of Paris in 1763, ceding Canada to Great
+Britain. The French in Canada became British subjects by that treaty, and
+many of them had extensive interests as well as experience in the fur
+business. Furthermore a number of Scotchmen of great enterprise and
+intelligence betook themselves to Canada, eager to partake of the
+boundless opportunities offered by the new shuffle of the cards. These
+Scotchmen and Frenchmen became natural partners in the foundation of
+enterprises independent of the Hudson's Bay monopoly. In 1783 a group of
+the boldest and most energetic of these active spirits, of whom the
+leaders were McGillivray, McTavish, Benjamin and Joseph Frobisher,
+Rechebleve, Thain, and Frazer, united in the formation of the North-west
+Fur Company. Bitter rivalry soon arose between the new company and the old
+monopoly. Following the usual history of special privilege, the old
+company, which had now been in existence one hundred and thirteen years,
+had learned to depend more on privilege than on enterprise, and had become
+somewhat degenerate. The North-westers "rustled" for new business in new
+regions. In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie, as one of the North-westers, made
+his way, with incredible hardship, down the river which bears his name to
+the Frozen Ocean. A few years later he made the first journey to the shore
+of the Pacific, commemorating his course by painting on a rock on the
+shore of the Cascade Inlet, north-east of Vancouver Island, these words:
+"Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one
+thousand seven hundred and ninety-three."
+
+As a result of the new undertakings set on foot by the North-westers and
+the reawakened Hudson's Bay Company, both companies entered the Columbia
+Valley. The struggle for possession of Oregon between the English and
+American fur companies and their government was on. In the summer of 1810
+David Thompson of the North-west company crossed the continental divide by
+the Athabasca Pass in latitude 52 deg. 25'. The North-westers had heard of the
+Astor enterprise in New York and realised that they must be up and doing
+if they would control the land of the Oregon. Although the character of
+soil, climate, and productions of the Columbia Valley was but imperfectly
+known, enough had been derived from Lewis and Clark, and from ocean
+discoveries to make it plain that the Columbia furnished the most
+convenient access to the interior from the sea, and that its numerous
+tributaries furnished a network of boatable waters unequalled on the
+Western slope, while there was every reason to suppose that its forests
+abounded in fur-bearing animals and that its climate would admit of much
+longer seasons of work than was possible in the biting winters of the
+Athabasca. It became vital to the continental magnitude of the designs of
+the Canadian companies that they control Oregon.
+
+For greater topical clearness we will anticipate a little at this point
+and state that after several years of intense rivalry it became plain to
+the British Parliament that it was suicidal to allow a policy of division
+in the face of a common enemy. Hence in 1821, by act of Parliament, the
+two companies were reorganised and united under a charter which was to
+last twenty-one years (and as a matter of fact was renewed at the end of
+that time), and under the provisions of which the North-westers were to
+have equal shares in both stock and offices, though the name of the
+Hudson's Bay Company, was retained. It will be remembered therefore, that
+up to the year 1821, the two great Canadian companies were distinct, and
+that during that time the North-west Company was much the more active and
+aggressive in the Columbia Valley, but that after that date the entire
+force of the Canadian Companies was combined under the name of the old
+monopoly. But however bitter the first enmity of the Canadian rivals, they
+agreed on the general proposition that the Americans must be checkmated,
+and during the score of years prior to their coalition they were seizing
+the pivotal points of the Oregon country. During the next two decades
+they created a vast network of forts and stations, and reduced the country
+contiguous to the River and its tributaries to a system so elaborate and
+interesting as to be worthy of extended study. We can sketch only its more
+general features. And the more perfectly to understand them, we must
+arrest here the story of the great Canadian monopoly and bring up the
+movement of the American fur companies.
+
+It may be noted, first of all, that by reason of the quicker colonisation
+and settlement and consequent establishment of agriculture and other arts
+pertaining to home life, the region of the United States east of the
+Mississippi never became the natural habitat of the trapper and fur-trader
+to anything like the degree of Canada and the western part of our own
+land. Nevertheless extensive fur interests grew up on the Mississippi
+during the French regime, and in 1763-4 August and Pierre Choteau located
+a trading post on the present site of St. Louis, and the fascinating
+history of that great capital began.
+
+Most of the American trading companies confined their operations to the
+east side of the Rocky Mountains. But the Missouri Fur Company of St.
+Louis, composed of a miscellaneous group of Americans and
+Hispano-Gallo-Americans, under the presidency of Manuel Lisa, a bold and
+enterprising Spaniard, took a step over the crest of the mountains and
+established the first trading post upon the waters of the Columbia. This
+was in 1809. Andrew Henry, one of the partners of the aforesaid company,
+crossed the mountains in that year and a year later built a fort on a
+branch of Snake River. This seems to have been on what subsequently
+became known as Henry's River. It was in one of the wildest and grandest
+regions of all that wild grand section of Snake River. Henry's River
+drains the north side of the Three Tetons, while the south branch, known
+afterwards as Lewis and finally as Snake River, drains the south of that
+group of mountains. _Henry must be remembered as the first American and
+the first white man recorded in history who built any structure upon any
+tributary of our River, and the year was 1810._ Both Henry and his Company
+had hopes of accomplishing great things in the way of the fur-trade in
+that very favourable region. But the next year the Indians were so
+threatening that the fort was forsaken and the party returned to the
+Missouri. When the Hunt party in the fall of 1811 sought refuge at this
+point they found only a group of abandoned huts, with no provisions or
+equipment of which they could make any use.
+
+But though Henry's fort was but a transient matter, his American
+countrymen were beginning to press through the open gateways of both
+mountain and sea. In the early part of 1809 the Winship brothers of
+Boston, together with several other keen-sighted Yankees, formed a project
+for a definite post on the Columbia River, proposing to reach their
+destination by ship. Accordingly they fitted out an old vessel known as
+the _Albatross_, with Nathan Winship as captain, William Gale as captain's
+assistant, and William Smith as first mate. Captain Gale kept a journal of
+the entire enterprise, and it is one of the most interesting and valuable
+of the many ship's records of the North-western Coast.
+
+Setting sail with a crew of twenty-two men and an excellent supply of
+stores and ammunition, and abundance of tools and hardware for erecting
+needful buildings, the _Albatross_ left Boston in the summer of 1809.
+After a slow and tedious, but very healthful and comfortable voyage,
+stopping at the Hawaiian Islands on the route, the _Albatross_ reached the
+mouth of the Columbia River on May 26, 1810. Many American and other ships
+had entered the mouth of the River prior to that date, but so far as known
+none had ascended any considerable distance. Apparently Gray and Broughton
+were the only shipmasters who had ascended above the wide expanse now
+known as Gray's Bay, while the Lewis and Clark expedition contained the
+only white men who had seen the river above tide-water. The Winship
+enterprise may be regarded with great interest, therefore, as the first
+real attempt to plant a permanent establishment on the banks of the River.
+
+Winship and his companions spent some days in careful examination of the
+river banks and as a result of their search they decided on a strip of
+valley land formed by a narrowing of the River on the north and an
+indentation of the mountain on the south. This pleasant strip of fertile
+land is located on the south bank of the lordly stream, and its lower end
+is about forty-five miles from the ocean. Being partially covered with a
+beautiful grove of oak trees, the first to be seen on the ascent of the
+River, the place received the name of Oak Point. It may be noted that this
+name was subsequently transferred to a promontory nearly opposite on the
+north bank, and this circumstance has led many to locate erroneously the
+site of the first buildings designed for permanent use on the banks of
+the Columbia. And such these were, for the Lewis and Clark structures at
+what they called Fort Clatsop, erected four and a half years earlier, were
+meant only for a winter's use. But the Winship party had glowing visions
+of a great emporium of the fur-trade, another Montreal or St. Louis, to
+inaugurate a new era for their country and themselves. They designed
+paying the Indians for their lands and in every way treating them justly.
+They seem in short to have had a very high conception of the dignity and
+worth of their enterprise. They were worthy of the highest success, and
+the student of to-day cannot but grieve that their high hopes were dashed
+with disaster.
+
+Tying the _Albatross_ to the bank on June 4th, they entered at once with
+great energy on the task of felling trees, rearing a large log house,
+clearing a garden spot, in which they at once began the planting of seeds,
+and getting ready to trade with the natives. But within four days the
+River began to rise rapidly, and the busy fort-builders perceived to their
+dismay that they had located on land subject to inundation. All the work
+thus far done went for naught, and they pulled their fort to pieces and
+floated the logs down stream a quarter of a mile to a higher place. There
+they resumed their buildings with redoubled energy. But within a week a
+much more dangerous situation again, and this time permanently, arrested
+their grand project. This time it was the very men toward whom they had
+entertained such just and benevolent designs, the Indians, who thwarted
+the plans. For, as Captain Gale narrates in a most entertaining manner, a
+large body of Chinooks and Cheheeles, armed with bows and arrows, and some
+muskets, made their appearance, announcing that they were on their way to
+war against the Culaworth tribe who had killed one of their chiefs a year
+before. But the next day the Indians massing themselves about the whites,
+gave such plain indications that the previous declaration was a pretence
+that the party hastily got into a position of defence. Their cannon on
+board the _Albatross_ had already been loaded in anticipation of
+emergencies, and so plain was it that they could make a deadly defence
+that the threatened attack did not come. A long "pow-wow" ensued instead,
+and the Chinooks insisted that the builders must select a site lower down
+the river. After due consideration the party decided that any determined
+opposition by the Indians would so impair their enterprise, even though
+they might be able to defend themselves, that it would be best to seek a
+new location. Accordingly they reloaded their effects, dropped down the
+River, and finally decided to make a voyage down the California coast and
+return the next year. Return they did, but by that time the next year the
+Pacific Fur Company had already located at Astoria the first permanent
+American settlement, and the Winship enterprise faded away. That the
+design of the Winships was not at all chimerical is apparent from the fact
+that within twenty years the Hudson's Bay Company had made of Vancouver,
+sixty miles farther up the River, the very kind of a trading entrepot of
+which the Winships had dreamed. Their dream was reasonable, but the time
+and place were unpropitious.
+
+A quotation from Captain Gale's journal will give a conception of his
+feelings:
+
+    June 12th.--The ship dropped further down the River, and it was now
+    determined to abandon all attempts to force a settlement. We have
+    taken off the goats and hogs which were left on shore for the use of
+    the settlement, and thus we have to abandon the business, after
+    having, with great difficulty and labour, got about forty-five miles
+    above Cape Disappointment; and with great trouble began to clear the
+    land and build a house a second time, after cutting timber enough to
+    finish nearly one-half, and having two of our hands disabled in the
+    work. It is, indeed, cutting to be obliged to knuckle to those whom
+    you have not the least fear of, but whom, from motives of prudence,
+    you are obliged to treat with forbearance. What can be more
+    disagreeable than to sit at the table with a number of these rascally
+    chiefs, who while they supply their greedy mouths with your food with
+    one hand, their bloods boil within them to cut your throat with the
+    other, without the least provocation.
+
+On the way out of the River Captain Winship learned that the Chinooks
+designed capturing his vessel, and would doubtless have done so, had not
+his vigilance prevented.
+
+While the crew of the _Albatross_ were engaged in these adventures the
+largest American Fur Company yet formed was getting ready to effect a
+lodgment on the shores of the Columbia. This was the Pacific Fur Company.
+John Jacob Astor was the founder of this enterprise. Though unfortunate in
+almost every feature of its history and its final outcome, this company
+had a magnificent conception, a royal grandeur of opportunity, and it
+possessed also the felicity, shared by no one of its predecessors, of the
+genius of a great literary star to illuminate its records. To Washington
+Irving it owes much of its fame. Yet the commercial genius of Astor could
+not prevent errors of judgment by the management any more than the
+literary genius of Irving was able to conceal their errors, or the genius
+of American liberty able to order events so as to prevent victory for a
+time by the "Britishers." As we view the history in the large it may be
+that we shall conclude that the British triumph at first was the best
+introduction to American triumph in the end.
+
+John Jacob Astor may, perhaps, be justly regarded as the first of the
+great promoters or financial magnates who have made the United States the
+world's El Dorado. Coming from Germany to this land of opportunity after
+the close of the Revolutionary War, he soon manifested that keen intuition
+in money matters, as well as intense devotion to accumulation, which has
+led to the colossal fortunes of his own descendants and of the other
+multimillionaires of this age. Having made quite a fortune by transporting
+furs to London, Mr. Astor turned to larger fields. With his broad and keen
+geographical and commercial insight, he could readily grasp the same fact
+which the North-westers of Montreal were also considering, that the
+Columbia River might well become the key to an international fur-trade, as
+well as a strategic point for American expansion westward. He made
+overtures to the North-westers for a partnership, but they declined. Then
+he determined to be the chief manager, and to associate individual
+Americans and Canadians with himself. With the promptitude of the skilful
+general, he proceeded to form his company and make his plan of campaign in
+time to anticipate the apparent designs of the active Canadians. They saw,
+as well as Astor did, the magnitude of the stake and at once made ready to
+play their part. For, as already noted, David Thompson crossed the Rockies
+by the Athabasca Pass in 1810, spent the winter at Lake Windermere on the
+Columbia River, and in the summer of 1811 reached Astoria, only to find
+the Astor Company already established there. It should be especially noted
+that the Thompson party was the first to descend the River from near its
+source to the ocean, although of course Lewis and Clark had anticipated
+them on the portion below the junction of the Snake with the main River.
+
+Mr. Astor's plans provided for an expedition by sea and one by land. The
+first was to convey stores and equipment for founding and defending the
+proposed capital of the empire of the fur-traders. Of the expedition by
+land under Hunt we have already given a full account in the preceding
+chapter, since its events rather allied it to the era of exploration than
+that of the traders. The organisation of Mr. Astor's company provided that
+there should be a capital stock of a hundred shares, of which he should
+hold half and his associates half. Mr. Astor was to furnish the money,
+though not to exceed four hundred thousand dollars, and was to bear all
+losses for five years. The term of the association was fixed at twenty
+years, though with the privilege of dissolving it in five years if it
+proved unprofitable. The general plan and the details of the expedition
+had been decided upon by the master mind of the founder with statesmanlike
+ability. It comes, therefore, as a surprise to the reader that Mr. Astor
+should have made a capital mistake at the very beginning of his
+undertaking. This mistake was in the selection of his associates and the
+captains of some of his ships. Of the partners, five were Americans and
+five were Canadians. Two only of the Americans remained with the company
+long enough to have any determining influence on its policies. Take the
+fact that the majority of the active partners and almost all the clerks,
+trappers, and other employees of the company were Canadians, and put it
+beside the other fact that war was imminent with Great Britain and did
+actually break out within two years, and the dangerous nature of the
+situation can be seen. Of the ship-captains, the first one, Captain
+Jonathan Thorn of the _Tonquin_, was a man of such overbearing and
+obstinate nature that disaster seemed to be fairly invited by placing him
+in such vitally responsible a position. The captain of the second ship,
+the _Beaver_, was Cornelius Sowles, and he seems to have been as timid and
+irresolute as Captain Thorn was bold and implacable. Both lacked judgment.
+It was probably natural that Mr. Astor, having had his main prior
+experience as a fur-dealer in connection with the Canadians centring at
+Montreal, should have looked in that direction for associates. But
+inasmuch as war between England and the United States seemed a practical
+certainty, it was a great error, in founding a vast enterprise in remote
+regions whose ownership was not yet definitely recognised, to share with
+citizens of Great Britain the determination of the important issues of the
+enterprise. It would have saved Mr. Astor great loss and chagrin if he had
+observed the maxim: "Put none but Americans on guard." As to the captains
+of the two vessels, that was an error that any one might have made. Yet
+for a man of Astor's exceptional ability and shrewdness to err so
+conspicuously in judging the character of the men appointed to such
+important places seems indeed strange.
+
+[Illustration: Astoria in 1845. From an Old Print.]
+
+[Illustration: Astoria. Looking up and across the Columbia River. Photo.
+by Woodfield.]
+
+To these facts in regard to the personnel of the partners, the captains,
+and the force, must be added two others; _i. e._, war and shipwreck. The
+combination of all these conditions made the history of the Astoria
+enterprise what it was. Yet, with all of its adversity, this was one of
+the best conceived, and, in most of its details, the best equipped and
+executed of all the great enterprises which have appeared in the
+commercial history of our country. As an element in the development of the
+land of the Oregon, it must be accorded the first place after the period
+of discovery.
+
+The _Tonquin_ left New York on September 6, 1810. She carried a fine
+equipment of all things needed for founding the proposed emporium. She was
+manned by a crew of twenty-one and conveyed members of the fur-trading
+force to the number of thirty-three. Stopping at the Sandwich Islands, an
+added force of twenty-four natives was taken aboard. At various times on
+the journey the rigid ideas of naval discipline and the imperious temper
+of Captain Thorn came near producing mutiny among the partners and clerks.
+When the _Tonquin_ hove to off the mouth of the Columbia on March 22,
+1811, the eager voyagers saw little to attract. The wind was blowing in
+heavy squalls, and the sea ran high. Nevertheless the hard-hearted Captain
+issued orders to the first mate, Fox, with a boat's crew of four men, to
+go into the foaming waves and sound the channel. The boat was
+insufficiently provided, and it seemed scarcely short of murder to
+despatch a crew under such circumstances. But the tyrannical captain would
+listen to no remonstrances, and the poor little boat went tossing over the
+billows on her forlorn hope. Such indeed it proved to be, for neither
+boat nor any one of the crew was ever heard of again. This was a wholly
+unnecessary sacrifice of life, for the _Tonquin_ was in no danger, and
+time could just as well have been taken for more propitious weather.
+
+The next day, the wind and sea having abated, the _Tonquin_ drew near the
+dreaded bar, but, no entrance that satisfied the captain appearing, the
+ship again stood off to spend the night in deep water. On the next day,
+the 24th, the wind fell and a serene sky seemed to invite another attempt.
+The pinnace in command of Mr. Aikin, with two white men and two Kanakas,
+was sent out to find the channel. Following the pinnace the ship moved in
+so rapidly under a freshening breeze that she passed the pinnace, the
+unfortunate men on board finding it impossible to effect an entrance and
+being borne by the refluent current into the mad surge where ocean tide
+and outflowing river met in foamy strife. So the pinnace disappeared. But
+meanwhile the crew had all their energies engaged to save the _Tonquin_.
+For the wind failed at the critical moment and the ship struck the sands
+with violence. Night came on. Had the men been classically trained (as in
+fact Franchere was) they might have remembered Virgil, _Ponto nox incubat
+atra_. But they had no time for classical or other quotations. Hastily
+dropping the anchors they lay to in the midst of the tumult of waters, in
+that worst of situations, on an unknown coast in the dark and in storm.
+But as Franchere expresses it, Providence came to their succour, and the
+tide flooding and the wind rising, they weighed the anchors, and in spite
+of the obscurity of the night, they gained a safe harbour in a little
+cove inside of Cape Disappointment, apparently just about abreast of the
+present town of Ilwaco.
+
+Thus the _Tonquin_ was saved, and with the light of morning it could be
+seen that she was fairly within the bar. Natives soon made their
+appearance, desirous of trading beaver-skins. But the crew were in no mood
+for commerce while any hope existed for finding the lost sailors. Taking a
+course toward the shore by what must have been nearly the present route
+from Ilwaco to Long Beach, the captain and a party with him, began a
+search and soon found Weeks, one of the crew of the pinnace. He was stark
+naked and suffering intensely from the cold. As soon as sufficiently
+revived he narrated the loss of the pinnace in the breakers, the death of
+three of the crew, and the casting of himself and one of the Kanakas upon
+the beach. The point where they were cast would seem to have been near the
+present location of the life-saving station.
+
+The two survivors of the ill-fated pinnace having been revived, the party
+returned to the _Tonquin_, which was now riding safely at anchor in the
+bay on the north side of the river, named Baker's Bay by Broughton
+nineteen years before. Joy for their own escape from such imminent perils
+was mingled with melancholy at the loss of their eight companions of the
+two boats, and with the melancholy there was a sense of bitterness toward
+the captain, who was to blame, at least for the loss of the small boat.
+
+But now the new land was all before them where to choose, and since
+Captain Thorn was in great haste to depart and begin his trading cruise
+along the coast, the partners on the _Tonquin_, Messrs. McKay, McDougal,
+David Stuart, and Robert Stuart, decided somewhat hurriedly to locate at
+the point which had received from Lieutenant Broughton the name of Point
+George. Franchere gives a pleasant picture of the beauty of the trees and
+sky, and the surprise of the party to find that, though it was only the
+12th of April when they set to work upon the great trees which covered the
+site of their chosen capital, yet spring was already far advanced. They
+did not then understand the effect of the Japan current upon the Pacific
+Coast climate.
+
+An incident of special interest soon after landing was the appearance on
+June 15th of two strange Indians, a man and a woman, bearing a letter
+addressed to _Mr. John Stuart, Fort Estekatadene, New Caledonia_. These
+two Indians wore long robes of dressed deerskins with leggings and
+moccasins more like the Indians of the Rocky Mountains. They could not
+understand the speech of the Astoria Indians nor of any of the mixture of
+dialects which the white men tried on them, until one of the Canadian
+clerks addressed them in the Knisteneaux language with which they seemed
+to be partially familiar. After several days of stay at the fort the two
+wandering Indians succeeded in making it clear to the traders that they
+had been sent out by a clerk named Finnan McDonald of the North-west Fur
+Company from a fort which that company had just established on the Spokane
+River. They said that they had lost their way and in consequence had
+descended the _Tacousah-Tessah_ (and this Franchere understood to be the
+Indian name for the Columbia, though the general impression among the
+Indians is that Tacousah-Tessah, or Tacoutche-Tesse, signified Frazer
+River). From the revelation gradually drawn from these two Indians (and
+the surprising discovery was made that they were both women) the very
+important conclusion was drawn that the North-west Fur Company was already
+prepared to contest with the Astor Company the possession of the River.
+The peculiar feature of the situation was that the most of the Astorians,
+though American by the existing business tie, were Canadian and British by
+blood and sympathy, and hence were very likely to fraternise with the
+Montreal traders.
+
+[Illustration: One of the Lagoons of the Upper Columbia River, near
+Golden, B. C. Photo. by C. F. Yates, Golden.]
+
+[Illustration: Saddle Mt., or Swallalochost, near Astoria, Famous in
+Indian Myth. Photo. by Woodfield.]
+
+However the Astorians decided to send an expedition into the interior to
+verify the story given by the two Indian women, but, just as they were
+ready to go, a large canoe with the British flag floating from her stern
+appeared, from which, when it had reached the landing, there leaped ashore
+an active, well-dressed man who introduced himself as David Thompson, of
+the North-west Company. This was the same man, the reader will remember,
+who had crossed the Rocky Mountains the year before, had wintered near the
+head of the River, and had then descended it, seeking a location for the
+Columbia River emporium of the Canadian company. But he was too late. It
+was quite strange by what narrow margins on several occasions the British
+failed to forestall the Yankees.
+
+On July 23d the delayed expedition of the Astorians set forth far to the
+interior, and as a result of their investigations, David Stuart, in charge
+of the party, began the erection of a trading house at the mouth of the
+Okanogan, five hundred and forty miles above Astoria. It was on September
+2, 1811, that this post was begun, and hence Fort Okanogan may be
+regarded as the first American establishment in the present State of
+Washington. It was antedated a few months by the post of the North-west
+Company at the entrance of the Little Spokane into the Spokane, near the
+present site of the City of Spokane.
+
+During the fall of 1811 the Indians around Astoria became very
+threatening. Direful rumours, too, in regard to the destruction of the
+_Tonquin_ began to disquiet the Astorians. In the emergency the wary
+McDougall, then acting as the head of the Company, bethought himself of a
+very effective expedient. He had learned that dreadful loss of life among
+the Indians had resulted a few years before from smallpox and that the
+Indians were mortally afraid of it. Calling into his room several of the
+principal chiefs, he asked if they remembered the smallpox. Their serious
+faces were sufficient proof that they did. McDougall then held up a small
+vial and continued with awful solemnity: "Listen to me. I am the great
+smallpox chief. In this little bottle I keep the smallpox. If I uncork the
+bottle and let it out I will kill every man, woman, and child of the
+Indians. Now go in peace, but if you make war upon us I will open the
+bottle, and you will die." The chiefs filed out in terror, and peace was
+preserved.
+
+McDougall still further cemented the bond of union with the natives by
+becoming united in wedlock with the daughter of Comcomly, the one-eyed
+chieftain of the Chinooks. After numerous and thorough ablutions had
+somewhat mitigated the oiliness and general fishiness of the Chinook
+princess, she was clad in the most brilliant style of the native beauty, a
+grand holiday was declared at Astoria, and white men and Indians joined
+in the wedding feast and made the welkin ring with their demonstrations.
+Thus did the daughter of Comcomly become the first lady of the land, and
+thus did peace brood over the broad waters of the lower River.
+
+During the winter of 1811-12 the two instalments of the Hunt party made
+their appearance, after their distressful journey from St. Louis as
+already narrated in Chapter IV. In May, 1812, the company's ship _Beaver_
+arrived from New York, loaded with stores and trading equipment, and
+bringing a considerable addition to the force of men. In the following
+month sixty men were despatched up-river, and by them a trading post was
+located at Spokane and another on the Snake River somewhere near the
+present site of Lewiston, while one section of the party went across the
+mountains and down the Missouri to convey dispatches to Mr. Astor.
+
+At this stage of the history of the Astoria enterprise, every aspect was
+encouraging. The trade in furs on the Spokane, the Okanogan, the Snake,
+the Coeur d'Alene was excellent, a successful cruise along the coast by
+the _Beaver_ seemed sure, and the Indians about the mouth of the River
+were friendly and well disposed. Mr. Astor's great undertaking seemed sure
+to be crowned with success. In the midst of all the signs of hope came
+tidings of dismay. It became known with certainty that the _Tonquin_ had
+been destroyed. This appalling disaster was related directly to the
+Astoria Company by the only survivor. This was an Indian of the Chehalis
+tribe whose name is given by Irving as Lamazee, by Ross as Lamazu, and by
+Bancroft as Lamanse. He had escaped from the Indians who had held him
+after the destruction of the _Tonquin_ and had finally found his way to
+Astoria, there to tell his tale, one of the most sanguinary in the long
+roll of struggles with the Indians. The next great disaster was the
+wrecking of the _Lark_, the third of the Company's ships from New York.
+During the same period Mr. Hunt, the partner next in rank to Mr. Astor and
+the one above all who could have acted wisely and patriotically in the
+forthcoming crisis, had gone in the _Beaver_ on a trading cruise among the
+Russians of Sitka, and by a most remarkable series of detentions he had
+been kept away from Astoria for over a year.
+
+To cap the climax of misfortunes, the War of 1812 burst upon the knowledge
+of the fur-traders and seemed to force upon such of the partners as were
+of British nationality the question of their paramount duty. As a result
+of the crisis, McDougal and McKenzie, although against the wishes of the
+other partners present, sold out to the agent of the North-westers, who
+had repaired at once to Astoria upon knowledge of the declaration of war.
+Thus the great Astoria enterprise was abandoned, and the Stars and Stripes
+went down and the Union Jack went up. Soon after the transfer, the British
+man-of-war _Raccoon_, Captain Black, arrived at Astoria, expecting to have
+seized the place as a rich prize of war. Imagine the disgust of the
+expectant British mariners to discover that the post had already been sold
+to British subjects, that their long journey was useless, and that their
+hopes of prize money had vanished.
+
+With the close of the War of 1812 a series of negotiations between the
+ministers of the two countries took place in regard to the possession of
+the River, by which it was finally decided that Astoria should be restored
+to the United States. Accordingly, on the 6th of October, 1818, the
+British Commissioners, Captain F. Hickey, of His Majesty's Ship _Blossom_,
+and J. Keith, representing the North-west Fur Company, signed an act of
+delivery restoring Fort George (Astoria) to the United States. Mr. J. B.
+Prevost, Commissioner for the United States, signed the act of acceptance.
+Astoria was once again American property.
+
+[Illustration: Steamer _Beaver_, the First Steamer on the Pacific, 1836.]
+
+[Illustration: Portland, Oregon, in 1851. From an Old Print.]
+
+While the River was now nominally in possession of the United States, it
+was practically under the control of the British fur companies. The
+Pacific Fur Company ceased to operate, and the North-westers entered upon
+active work both by sea and land in exploring the vast and profitable
+domain which the misfortunes of their American rivals, supplemented in a
+most timely manner by the treachery of McDougall and McKenzie, had put
+within their power. The canny Scotchmen, McDougall, McTavish, McKenzie,
+McDonald, and the various other Macs who now guided the plans of the
+North-westers, signalled their entrance into power by despatching
+companies to the various pivotal points of the great Columbia Basin, the
+Walla Walla, Yakima, Okanogan, Spokane, and Snake rivers. Two incidents
+may be related to illustrate the character of people and the conditions of
+that wilderness period.
+
+A party of ninety men in ten canoes left Astoria for up-river points on
+April 4, 1814. While passing the mouth of the Yakima, about three hundred
+and fifty miles up the River, the men were surprised to see three canoes
+putting out from shore and to hear a child's voice calling out, "_Arretez
+donc! arretez donc!_" Stopping to investigate, the party found in one of
+the boats the Indian wife of Pierre Dorion, with her children. Dorion,
+with five other Canadians, had gone the previous summer with a party under
+command of John Reed of the Astor Company. While trapping and hunting,
+deep in the mountains of Snake River, the party had been massacred by
+Indians. The woman and her two boys had alone escaped the massacre. It was
+the dead of winter and the snows lay deep on the Blue Mountains. But the
+wife of Dorion found shelter in a remote fastness of the mountains,
+putting up a bark hut for a shelter and subsisting on the carcasses of
+some of her horses. In the spring, the pitiful little company of mother
+and children descended to Walla Walla and found there more kindly disposed
+natives, who cared for them and turned them over to the protection of the
+whites. A more thrilling story of suffering and heroism than this of
+Madame Dorion and her children has never come up from the chronicles of
+the wild West.
+
+Equally illustrative of the life of the fur-traders is the account given
+by Alexander Ross of one of his many adventures in the Columbia country.
+In 1814 Ross went from Okanogan to Yakima to secure horses. With him were
+four other whites and three Indian women. The Yakima Valley was then as
+now a paradise of the Indians. There the tribes gathered by the thousands
+in the spring to dig camas, to race horses, and to gamble, as well as to
+form alliances and make plans for war. When the little company of traders
+reached the encampment, they discovered to their astonishment that it was
+a veritable city. Six thousand men, women, and children, with ten thousand
+horses, and uncounted dogs and many shackled bears and wolves, were strewn
+across the plain. It was a dangerous situation for the traders, for it
+became plain to them that the Indians were unfriendly. But assuming an air
+of careless bravado, Ross proceeded to display his store of trinkets for
+the purpose of starting a traffic in horses. Assuming a very hilarious
+manner the Indians would seize and drive away the animals as fast as the
+white men got them. Then the Indians began to deprive them of clothes and
+food. Finally they made ready to seize their three women as slaves. Ross
+managed to have the women escape temporarily, but then the savages were
+worse than ever. Matters reached a crisis when an obstreperous chief named
+Yaktana snatched a knife from the hands of one of the Canadians. A
+desperate struggle was just at the point of breaking out, which would
+inevitably have resulted in the death of all the white men, when a sudden
+intuition flashed through the quick mind of Ross, and rushing between the
+combatants he handed his own knife, a much more elegant one, to Yaktana,
+saying in a friendly tone, "This is a chief's knife. Take it and give back
+the other." There was an instant revulsion. Yaktana was so much flattered
+that he turned at once into a stanch supporter of the shrewd trader. Food
+was brought. The horses were restored. Equipment was provided. The three
+women were regained, and the company made their way without further
+trouble to Okanogan.
+
+We have already mentioned the important fact that in 1821 the two great
+Canadian Companies, the North-western and the Hudson's Bay, decided to
+unite. With the union, the great era of fur-trade in the Columbia Basin
+fairly began, to continue about twenty-five years, yielding then to the
+American immigrant. That twenty-five years of the dominance of the great
+Fur Company contained nearly all the poetry and romance as well as the
+profit and statesmanship of the business. The entire region of the River,
+as well as that of the Puget Sound country, was mapped out in a most
+systematic manner with one chief central fort, Vancouver on the Columbia.
+A more magnificent location for the purpose cannot be conceived. It is now
+the site of a flourishing city and of the United States Fort Headquarters
+for the North-west, generally conceded to be the finest fort location in
+the United States. Fort Vancouver was established in 1825 upon a superb
+bench of land gently sloping back from the River for two miles. Great
+trees fringed the site, Mt. Hood lifted its pinnacled majesty sixty miles
+to the eastward, the sinuous mazes of the Willamette Valley stretched out
+far southward, while the lordly River was in full view a dozen miles up
+and down. Every natural advantage and delight which wild nature could
+offer was here in fullness. Ships could readily ascend the hundred miles
+from the ocean to unload their merchandise and take on their cargoes of
+precious furs, the furs collected at the outlay of so much toil and
+suffering over the area of hundreds of miles. Every species of game and
+fish abounded in the waters and along the banks of the River. Deer and elk
+tossed their antlers between the stately firs of the upland, and pheasant
+and grouse whirred among the branches. Geese, cranes, ducks, and swans, in
+countless numbers, darkened the lagoons amid the many islands enclosed by
+the mouths of the Willamette and the adjacent waters of the larger stream.
+Fish of many varieties, the royal Chinook salmon, king of food fish, being
+at the head in beauty and edibility, though surpassed in size by the
+gigantic sturgeon, which sometimes weighed a thousand pounds, abounded in
+the River. No epicure of the world's capitals could command such viands as
+nature brought to the doors of the denizens of Fort Vancouver.
+
+The fort itself was laid out on a scale of amplitude suitable to the
+spaciousness of the site. It was enclosed with a picket wall twenty feet
+high, with massive buttresses of timber inside. This enclosure was a
+parallelogram seven hundred and fifty by five hundred feet. Inside were
+about forty buildings, the governor's residence of generous dimensions
+being in the centre. Two chapels provided for the spiritual needs of the
+company, while schoolhouse, stores, "bachelors' halls," and shops of
+various kinds attested the variety of the needs. Along the bank of the
+River, outside the enclosure, lay quite a village of cottages for the
+married employees, together with hospital, boathouses, granaries,
+warehouses, threshing mills, and dairy buildings.
+
+Taken altogether Fort Vancouver was the model fort of the western slope.
+Moreover, the fertile soil and genial, humid climate soon encouraged the
+factors of the Company to experiment with gardens and orchards, and,
+within a few years after founding, fifteen hundred acres of land were in
+the finest state of productivity, while three thousand head of cattle,
+twenty-five hundred sheep, three hundred brood mares, and over a hundred
+milch cows, added their bounteous contributions to the already plentiful
+resources of the fort.
+
+With this rich larder, with the spacious buildings, with the annual
+arrivals and departures of ships by sea and fleets of bateaux by river,
+with hunting trips and Indian policies, with the intercoast traffic with
+the Russians on the north and the Spaniards on the south,--there was as
+much to engage and delight the minds of these people as if they had lived
+in the heart of civilisation.
+
+Any account of Fort Vancouver would be incomplete without some reference
+to Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of the Company in the Columbia
+district from 1824 to the time of his retirement from the Company in 1846
+and settlement at Oregon City, Oregon, as an American citizen. Rarely has
+any one in the stormy history of the Columbia Basin received such
+unvarying and unqualified praise as has this truly great man. Physically,
+mentally, and morally, Dr. McLoughlin was altogether exceptional among the
+mixed population that gathered about the emporium of the traders. Six feet
+four inches in height, his noble and expressive face crowned with a great
+cascade of snowy hair, firm yet kindly, prompt and businesslike yet
+sympathetic and helpful, "Old Whitehead" or "White Eagle," as the Indians
+called him, was a true-born king of men.
+
+We have said that Fort Vancouver was the great central fort. The others
+commanding the pivotal points upon the River and its tributaries were
+Fort Hall and Fort Boise on the Snake, Spokane House on the Spokane near
+the present metropolis of the Inland Empire, Fort Colville on the river of
+the same name near its junction with the Columbia, Fort Okanogan at the
+junction of the stream of that name with the great River, Fort Owen in the
+Coeur d'Alene region, Fort Simcoe in the Yakima country, Fort Walla
+Walla, first known as Fort Nez Perce, on the Columbia at the mouth of the
+Walla Walla, and Fort George on the former site of Astoria. These forts
+were all laid out in the same general fashion as Fort Vancouver, though no
+one was so large, elaborate, or comfortable. Besides the forts there were
+a number of small trading posts. The chief furs procured in the interior
+were beaver, and those on the coast were sea-otter. Many others, as the
+mink, sharp-toothed otter, fox, lynx, raccoon, were found in abundance.
+
+The profits of the business were immense. Alexander Ross relates that he
+secured one morning before breakfast one hundred and ten beaver skins for
+a single yard of white cloth. Ross spent one hundred and eighty-eight days
+alone in the Yakima country. During that time he collected one thousand
+five hundred and fifty beavers, besides other peltries, worth in the
+Canton market two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds, which cost him in
+his objects of trade only thirty-five pounds. That was while Ross was
+connected with the Astor Company.
+
+In completing this necessarily hurried chapter on the fascinating era of
+the fur-traders, we cannot omit a brief reference to the movements of the
+regular brigades of boats up and down the River, for these comprised a
+great part of both the business and the romance of the age. The course of
+these brigades was from the southern shores of Hudson Bay, through
+Manitoba, to the crest of the Rockies at the head of the Columbia. Water
+was utilised to the greatest possible extent, while at the portages and
+across the mountains horse-power and man-power were employed. Once afloat
+upon the Columbia, the brigades braved most of the rapids, paying
+occasional toll of men and goods to the envious deities of the waters, yet
+with marvellous skill and general fortune making their way down the
+thousand or more miles from Boat Encampment to Fort Vancouver. The descent
+was easy compared with the ascent. The first journey of the east-bound
+brigade of the North-westers from Astoria to Montreal was in 1814, and it
+required the time from April 4th to May 11th to reach the mouth of Canoe
+River, the point at which they entered upon the mountain climb to the head
+of the Athabasca.
+
+The boatmen were French-Canadians, a hardy, mercurial, light-hearted race,
+half French, with the natural grace and politeness of their race, and
+having the pleasant patois which has made them the theme of much popular
+present-day literature. They were half Indian, either in tastes and
+manners or in blood, with the atmosphere of forests and streams clinging
+to every word and gesture. They were perhaps the best boatmen in the
+world. Upon those matchless lakes into which the Columbia and its
+tributaries expand at intervals the fur-laden boats would glide at ease,
+while the wild songs of the _coureurs des bois_ would echo from shore to
+shore in lazy sibilations, apparently betokening no thought of serious or
+earnest business. But once the rapids were reached, the gay and
+rollicking knight of the paddle became all attention. With keen eyes fixed
+on every swirl or rock, he guided the light craft with a ready skill which
+would be inconceivable to one less daring and experienced. The brigades
+would run almost all the rapids from Death Rapids to the sea, making
+portages at Kettle Falls, Tumwater or Celilo Falls, and the Cascades,
+though at some stages of the water they could run down even them. They
+always had to carry around those points in ascending the River. In spite
+of all the skill of the _voyageurs_ the Columbia and the Snake, the Pend
+Oreille and the Kootenai have exacted a heavy toll of life from those who
+have laid their compelling hands upon the white manes of chute and
+cataract. Many, even of the _voyageurs_, are the human skeletons that have
+whitened the volcanic beds of the great streams.
+
+The boats used by the fur brigades were either log canoes obtained of the
+Indians or bateaux. The former were hollowed from the magnificent cedars
+which grew on the banks of the River, sometimes fifty or sixty feet long,
+with prow carved in fantastic, even beautiful fashion. They would hold
+from six to twenty persons with from half a ton to two or three tons of
+load, yet were so light that two men could carry one of the medium size
+while four could handle one of any size around a portage. But the
+_voyageurs_ never took quite so much to the canoes as did the Indians,
+whose skill in handling them in high waves is described by Ross and
+Franchere as something astonishing. And even the Indians of the present
+show much the same ability, though the splendid cedar canoes are no
+longer made, and only here and there can one of the picturesque survivors
+be seen.
+
+The bateaux were boats of peculiar shape, being built very high and broad
+so that in an unloaded condition they seemed to rest on the water almost
+like a paper shell. Both ends were high and pointed as prows. They were
+propelled with oars and steered with paddles. One of the usual size was
+about thirty feet long and five feet wide. Being of light-draft,
+double-enders, capable of holding large loads and yet easily conveyed
+around portages, more steady and roomy than canoes, these bateaux were the
+typical Columbia River medium of commerce during the era of the
+fur-traders. They, too, have mainly vanished from the scenes of their
+former glory. Canoes, bateaux, cries and yells of Indians, songs of
+_voyageurs_, have gone into the engulfing limbo of the bygone, along with
+the keen-eyed Scotch factor and the sharp-featured Yankee skipper. Yet the
+swans and geese and ducks still darken the more placid expanses of the
+River and the salmon still start the widening circles in almost
+undiminished numbers, while the glaciated heights of Hood and Adams and
+St. Helens (we would rather say Wiyeast, Klickitat, and Loowit) still
+stand guard over the unchanging waters.
+
+This part of our topic has mainly centred upon the British possession of
+the River. A full history of the fur era on the River would demand a
+chapter on the later attempts of three remarkable men to reestablish
+American interests in the disputed territory. These men were Jedediah
+Smith, Capt. E. L. Bonneville, and Nathaniel J. Wyeth. But though these
+men belong properly to this era, their efforts in the fur-trade were
+relatively unimportant in comparison with the influence of their lives in
+the direction of permanent American occupation. It seemed the appointment
+of destiny that the American should play second fiddle to his British
+rival in the fur-trade. But as tenfold, a thousandfold compensation, the
+American farmers, home-builders, and tradesmen were to acquire final
+possession of one of the goodliest lands on which the Stars and Stripes
+has ever floated. The bateaux and canoes must needs give way to the
+steamboat and the launch, the _coureur des bois_ to the lumberman and the
+miner and farmer, and the picturesque emporium of the British fur-trader
+on the River to the modern American city. We shall, therefore, more
+fittingly chronicle the later American fur-traders as a part of the march
+of their countrymen to permanent ownership of Oregon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Coming of the Missionaries to the Tribes of the River
+
+    Journey of the Nez Perce Chiefs to Find the White Man's Book of
+    Life--Interest Excited among Christian People by this Event--Methodist
+    Church Leads in Preparing for a Missionary Party--Jason Lee and his
+    Mission near Chemeketa--The Reinforcement by the
+    _Lausanne_--Importance of Jason Lee as a Force in Oregon History--The
+    Missions of the American Board at Walla Walla, Lapwai, and
+    Tshimakain--Preliminary Journey of Whitman and Parker in 1835--The
+    Wedding Journey from Missouri to the Columbia in 1836--Dr. Whitman and
+    his Associates and their Traits of Character--On the Summit of South
+    Pass--Whitman's Waggon--Arrival at Vancouver and Conference with
+    McLoughlin--Locations of the Missionaries--Reinforcement in
+    1838--Friendship of the Nez Perces--First Printing Press--Whitman's
+    Ride in 1842-43--The Catholic Missions--Fathers Blanchet, Demers, and
+    De Smet--Influence of the Missions.
+
+
+In 1832 a strange thing happened. Four Indians appeared in St. Louis
+seeking the "White Man's Book of Life." At that time General William Clark
+was superintendent of Indian affairs, located at St. Louis. He was
+familiar with the Western Indians and had greatly sympathised with them.
+
+Learning of these strange Indians and their stranger quest, General Clark
+sought them, and entered into communication with them. It is usually
+stated that these Indians were Flatheads from the Pend Oreille region, but
+Miss Kate Macbeth, a missionary for many years to the Nez Perces, became
+convinced that three were Nez Perces and the fourth a Flathead. How they
+had learned that the white man had a "Book of Life" is not known. Captain
+Bonneville's journal states that Pierre Pambrun had given many of the
+Oregon Indians instruction in the rudiments of the Catholic worship. Some
+have conjectured that Jedediah Smith, a noted American trapper, and, most
+remarkable of all, a devout Christian, may have imparted religious
+thoughts to them. Miss Macbeth believed that the motive of the mission was
+to find Lewis and Clark, the explorers, whose visit in 1804-05 had
+produced a profound impression on the Nez Perces. The first published
+account of these four Indians appeared in the _New York Christian
+Advocate_ for March 1, 1833. This was in the form of a letter from G. P.
+Disoway, in which he enclosed a letter to himself from his agent, William
+Walker, an interpreter for the Wyandotte Indians. Walker was at St. Louis
+at the time, and met these four Indians in General Clark's office. He was
+much impressed with their appearance, and learned that General Clark had
+given them as full an account as possible of the nature and history of
+man, of the advent of the Saviour, and of His work for men. Walker states
+that two of the four men died in St. Louis, and as to whether the others
+reached their native land he did not know.
+
+In the _Illinois Patriot_ of October, 1833, the same topic was taken up,
+together with the statement that Walker's report had excited so much
+interest that a committee of the Illinois Synod had been appointed to
+investigate and report on what seemed the duty of the churches in the
+premises. The committee accordingly went to St. Louis and confirmed the
+account by conference with General Clark. They also made it an object to
+learn all available facts in regard to the general conditions among the
+Indians west of the Rocky Mountains.
+
+One of the most valuable records in respect to these Indians is from
+George Catlin, the noted painter and student of Indian life. Catlin was on
+the steamer going up the Missouri toward Fort Benton with these two
+remaining Indians on their homeward journey. His account of them in the
+_Smithsonian Report_ for 1885 is thus:
+
+    These two men, when I painted them, were in beautiful Sioux dresses
+    which had been presented to them in a talk with the Sioux, who treated
+    them very kindly, while passing through the Sioux country. These two
+    men were part of a delegation that came across the mountains to St.
+    Louis, a few years since, to inquire for the truth of representation
+    which they said some white man had made among them, that our religion
+    was better than theirs, and that they would all be lost if they did
+    not embrace it. Two old and venerable men of this party died in St.
+    Louis, and I travelled two thousand miles, companion with these two
+    fellows, toward their own country, and became much pleased with their
+    manners and dispositions. When I first heard the objects of their
+    extraordinary mission across the mountains, I could scarcely believe
+    it; but, on conversing with General Clark on a future occasion, I was
+    fully convinced of the fact.
+
+It appears from still another account of the matter that the two surviving
+Indians were disappointed in that they did not actually get possession of
+the "Book." A speech of one of the chiefs as he left General Clark has
+been published in a number of books, and is well worthy of preservation.
+It should be stated, however, that this speech has no authentic source,
+nor does it appear anywhere how it was obtained. It is commonly stated
+that it was "taken down" at the time by one of the clerks in General
+Clark's office. The historian Mowry is authority for the statement that
+one of the Indians gave the substance of the speech to the missionary,
+Spalding, at a later time. It has, also, a somewhat conventionalised
+sound. Yet with whatever discredit may be cast upon it, it possesses so
+many elements of interest that it may well be given here. This is the
+reported speech.
+
+    I come to you over the trail of many moons from the setting sun. You
+    were the friend of my fathers, who have all gone the long way. I came
+    with an eye partly open for my people, who sit in darkness. I go back
+    with both eyes closed. How can I go back blind, to my blind people? I
+    made my way to you with strong arms through many enemies and strange
+    lands that I might carry back much to them. I go back with both arms
+    broken and empty. Two fathers came with us. They were the braves of
+    many winters and wars. We leave them asleep here by your great water
+    and wigwams. They were tired in many moons and their moccasins wore
+    out.
+
+    My people sent me to get the White Man's Book of Heaven. You took me
+    to where you allow your women to dance, as we do not ours, and the
+    book was not there. You took me to where they worship the great Spirit
+    with candles, and the book was not there. You showed me images of the
+    good spirits and the pictures of the good land beyond, but the book
+    was not among them to tell us the way. I am going back the long and
+    sad trail to my people in the dark land. You make my feet heavy with
+    gifts and my moccasins will grow old in carrying them, yet the book is
+    not among them. When I tell my poor blind people after one more snow,
+    in the big council, that I did not bring the book, no word will be
+    spoken by our old men or by our young braves. One by one they will
+    rise up and go out in silence. My people will die in darkness, and
+    they will go on a long path to other hunting grounds. No white man
+    will go with them, and no White Man's Book to make the way plain. I
+    have no more words.
+
+Taken altogether, it may be said that this event, as preserved in these
+various ways, constitutes one of the most pleasing and significant, though
+pathetic, incidents in Indian history. It was, moreover, pregnant with
+results. It might almost be said that it was the key to American
+possession of Oregon. For upon the acquisition of the story by the
+Christian people of the United States, there rose an immediate demand that
+something be done to carry the Gospel to the Indians of the Oregon
+country. This story was interpreted as a Macedonian cry. The period was
+one of strong religious feeling, as well as missionary zeal. The
+warm-hearted followers of the Cross felt at once that here was a
+providential opening to honour that Cross and to advance its kingdom upon
+the western border of civilisation.
+
+The Methodist Church was first to take up the work of sending forth
+missionaries to the Oregon Indians. To Wilbur Fiske of Wesleyan University
+seems due the credit of the first move. He enlisted the interest of Jason
+Lee, a former student at Wesleyan University, but then engaged in
+missionary work in the province of Quebec. Lee was a tall, athletic young
+man, full of zeal and consecration, not polished or graceful in manner,
+but powerful in spirit. He grasped at once the great possibilities in the
+proposition of Dr. Fiske, and, going to Boston, became appointed by the
+New England Conference as superintendent of a mission to Oregon. Daniel
+Lee, Cyrus Shepard, and P. L. Edwards were named his associates.
+
+In 1834, this mission band learned that Nathaniel Wyeth, famous as a
+fur-trader, was expecting to cross the continent, sending his goods by the
+brig _May Dacre_ to the Columbia River. Such an opportunity was too
+favourable to be lost, and the Methodist Board at once opened negotiations
+with Captain Wyeth, with the result that this first missionary company to
+Oregon went with him and arrived safely at Vancouver on the Columbia, the
+headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company. The _May Dacre_ reached her
+destination soon after, and thus Mr. Lee and his comrades found themselves
+at the threshold of their labours. The first intention had been to locate
+among the Nez Perces and Flatheads, the ones from whom the Macedonian cry
+had gone up. But Dr. McLoughlin, the chief factor at Vancouver, who had
+received them with the utmost interest and cordiality, persuaded them that
+the Willamette Valley would be a more promising field. Its advantages were
+obvious. It was directly on water navigation to the sea, and within easy
+distance of it. It was so near the chief entrepot of the Hudson's Bay
+Company as to be comparatively safe and accessible to all mails. The
+valley was of extraordinary scenic charm and salubrious climate. The
+natives, moreover, seemed more tractable and peaceful than those of the
+upper valley. Accordingly the Methodist brethren ascended the Willamette
+to a point near a group of farms which had been located by French
+employees of the Hudson's Bay Company on what is known now as French
+Prairie. One of these Frenchmen was Joseph Gervais, and from him the
+subsequent town of Gervais was named. The mission was located on the
+Willamette near Chemawa, the present site of the United States Indian
+School. It was ten miles north of Chemeketa, which was the great Indian
+Council Ground, or Peace Ground, from which fact the missionary applied to
+it the name of Salem,--a change of name more commendable for piety than
+for taste.
+
+Jason Lee set to work at once with zeal, patience, and intelligence, to
+inaugurate the work to which he had consecrated his life. At times his
+efforts seemed to be well rewarded. Then pestilence would attack the
+Indians, followed by suspicion and excitement, as a result of which all
+the gains would be lost. The work among the whites and their half-breed
+families was more encouraging than that with the Indians. At the best,
+Indians have been inconstant and unreliable in respect to religious
+instruction.
+
+In 1837 a strong reinforcement arrived, among whom were Dr. Elijah White,
+destined to become a man of note as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
+
+In 1838, Rev. Daniel Lee and Rev. H. K. W. Perkins established a new
+station at Wascopum, now the location of The Dalles. In the same year
+Jason Lee returned East to secure an addition to the mission. His efforts
+were crowned with success. Five missionaries, one physician, six
+mechanics, four farmers, one steward, and four female teachers, with a
+number unclassified,--in all thirty-six adults and seventeen
+children,--reached the Columbia River on the good ship _Lausanne_, under
+charge of Captain Spalding, on May 21, 1840. This was the most notable
+company that had yet reached our Great River. Among them were men and
+women who contributed in a great degree to the subsequent growth of
+Oregon. Of the number were Revs. Gustavus Hines, Alvin Waller, J. P.
+Richmond, and J. H. Frost; Dr. Ira L. Babcock, George Abernethy,
+afterwards governor of the territory, J. L. Parrish, and L. H. Judson. All
+the men were accompanied by their wives, and most of them had children.
+They were, in short, the advance guard of the American home-builders in
+Oregon, and as such they deserve a special place on the roll of honour.
+
+With this added force, it was possible to enlarge the work, in both
+secular and religious lines, both among the whites and the Indians. A
+mission was started at Clatsop on the south side of the mouth of the
+Columbia under Mr. Parrish, one at the falls of the Willamette, and
+another on Tualatin Plains, under Mr. Hines, while still another was
+located by Mr. Richmond at Nisqually on Puget Sound.
+
+As time passed on, it became more and more evident that this work was to
+become less for Indians and more for the incoming whites. The whole aspect
+of it changed. The Methodist Board in New England decided that they were
+not justified in maintaining the missions, and these were discontinued
+during the decade of the forties.
+
+Out of the mission at Chemeketa grew Willamette University, one of the
+most prominent educational institutions of Oregon.
+
+Jason Lee returned to the East and died in Canada in 1845. His life,
+though short, was heroic and influential. He looms large on the background
+of the history of the Columbia. In brief retrospect, it may be said of
+him that he combined religious zeal with shrewd common sense and capacity
+to see and adapt himself to the business and political conditions of his
+time and place. This capacity is illustrated by his shrewd management of a
+bold and enterprising character named Ewing Young. This man was about
+starting a distillery in the Willamette Valley. Knowing the ruinous
+effects of intoxicants on Indians, the missionaries strongly opposed the
+enterprise. But knowing also that Young was a man of force and capacity
+and much more valuable as a friend than as an enemy, Mr. Lee accomplished
+the abandonment of the distillery by indirection, and at the same time
+gained one of the most important steps in the development of the country.
+For he induced Young to undertake the great work of driving into the
+Willamette Valley a large herd of cattle from California. To the settlers
+beginning to locate on the fat pasture land along the Willamette and its
+tributaries, this was a stage in history of priceless moment. Up to that
+time the only cattle in the country belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company
+and it was not their policy to encourage American settlers.
+
+Another fact in connection with Jason Lee constitutes a landmark in the
+history of American acquisition of Oregon. This was a memorial prepared by
+him, with the assistance of P. L. Edwards and David Leslie, and signed by
+practically all the adult men then accessible in the Willamette Valley,
+thirty-six in number, addressed to the United States Congress and praying
+that the Government would consider the importance of the Columbia River
+country and the question of acquisition. This memorial was dated March
+16, 1838, and was taken by Mr. Lee to the East and given to Senator Linn
+of Missouri, in January, 1839. Senator Linn was so aroused over the
+boundless possibilities offered to westward expansion that he introduced a
+bill in the Senate calling for the establishment of Oregon Territory and
+the occupation of it by the military forces of the United States. Though
+this bill did not become a law, it constituted a rallying cry for the
+friends of American possession, which had results of utmost importance.
+
+In short, to Jason Lee, more than to any other one, unless we except Dr.
+Marcus Whitman, of whom we shall speak later, must be attributed the
+inauguration of that remarkable chain of causes and effects, a long line
+of sequences, by which Oregon and our Pacific Coast in general became
+American possessions, and the international destiny of our nation was
+secured.
+
+From the Methodist missions of Lower Columbia we turn to the Presbyterian
+and Congregational missions of the upper River and its tributaries. The
+American Board of Foreign Missions was at that time under the joint
+control of three religious bodies, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Dutch
+Reformed. At the instance of the last named body, the Board in 1835
+commissioned Rev. Samuel Parker of Ithaca, N. Y., and Marcus Whitman,
+M.D., of Rushville, N. Y., to make a reconnaissance of the country of the
+Columbia, with the view of a mission. Under the protection of the American
+Fur Company, the two spiritual prospectors journeyed as far as Green
+River. There deciding that what they learned of the land beyond the Rocky
+Mountains warranted the carrying out of the missionary project, they
+determined to part company, Dr. Whitman returning to the "States" for
+reinforcements, and Dr. Parker going onward through Oregon to the mouth of
+the Columbia, and proceeding thence by ship to Honolulu, whence he
+returned by water to his home. Dr. Parker was an elderly man, somewhat
+pedantic and notional in his ways, but withal full of energy and zeal in
+the cause. He was not so popular with trappers and frontiersmen as his
+companion. For Whitman was a young, athletic man, capable of any degree of
+fatigue, very ready in proffering his professional or other services to
+those in need. There was a bonhommie and general disregard of the
+conventionalities in Whitman that caused the rough spirits of the border
+to "take to" him at once, while they rather looked askance at the more
+straight-laced ecclesiastic. But Parker was a man worthy of all respect
+for his qualities both of mind and purpose. He was a keen observer, and
+has left us, as his contribution to history, his _Travels beyond the Rocky
+Mountains_, one of the most readable and valuable books of travel in our
+western literature. His journey was, in fact, the first one across the
+continent, after that of Lewis and Clark, which produced a book of high
+standard.
+
+Dr. Whitman made his way at once to his home in New York, accompanied by
+two Nez Perce Indians. Arriving late on Saturday night he stopped with his
+brother, and no one else of the village knew of his arrival, until at the
+hour of service the next morning, he appeared in the aisle followed by his
+two Indians. His appearance was so like that of an apparition that his
+usually staid and proper mother lost her head entirely, and leaped to her
+feet, shouting "Why, there is Marcus!" The equilibrium of the meeting was
+for the time almost destroyed.
+
+Within a few months, Dr. Whitman was married to Narcissa Prentiss. He
+persuaded Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, who had hitherto planned to go as
+missionaries to the Osage Indians, to join them for Oregon. W. H. Gray was
+secured to go with the party as secular manager.
+
+And now began the famous "Wedding Journey" from New York to the banks of
+the Columbia. It included within itself the romance, the pathos, the
+devotion, the heroism, and at the last, the tragedy of missions.
+
+_The History of Oregon_, by W. H. Gray, is the chief original authority
+for this journey, though the women of the party kept journals which are of
+great value. It would seem that all the members of the party were of
+marked personality. Dr. Whitman was a tall, spare man, with deep blue
+eyes, wide mouth, iron-grey hair, of inflexible resolution, and very set
+when his mind was once made up, though flexible and even variable till
+that point had been reached. He was of enormous physical strength and
+endurance, with a constitution, as one who knew him later told the writer,
+"like a saw-mill."
+
+Mrs. Whitman was a woman of liberal education for those times, large,
+fair-haired, blue-eyed, dignified, and somewhat reserved (rather
+"starchy," the mountain men thought her), very ladylike, refined, and
+attractive. One of the pathetic and interesting things about her is
+related by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb in the _Magazine of American History_, in
+1884. This relates the fact that the church of which Miss Prentiss (Mrs.
+Whitman) was a member in Plattsburg, N. Y., held a farewell service for
+her, and in the course of it the minister gave out the hymn:
+
+    Yes, my native land, I love thee,
+    All thy scenes, I love them well;
+    Friends, connections, happy country,
+    Can I bid you all farewell.
+
+The entire congregation joined heartily in singing, but before the hymn
+was ended voice after voice was choked with sobs, and in the last words
+the clear, sweet soprano voice of Miss Prentiss was heard alone,
+unwavering, like a peal of triumph.
+
+Mr. Spalding was a very different man from Dr. Whitman and has not been so
+well treated by historians. He is said to have been more nervous and
+crotchety, though of remarkable industry and intense likes and dislikes,
+which he never scrupled to express in vigorous fashion. The fact remains,
+however, that his mission was altogether the most successful of all those
+founded in Oregon.
+
+Mrs. Spalding was tall, dark, rather coarse featured, and of fragile
+health. It is truly wonderful that with such a handicap she should have
+been able to accomplish the arduous journey to Oregon. She was less
+fastidious and reserved than Mrs. Whitman and adopted the policy of taking
+the habits and manners of the Indians in greater degree, whereas her more
+dignified sister believed in the policy of trying to raise the Indians to
+her own level. The Indians therefore understood Mrs. Spalding better. The
+Indians always desired the privilege of entering Mrs. Whitman's private
+room unannounced, and, if possible, of seeing her at her bath or toilette.
+Her natural objection to such intrusion was a chronic grievance which
+resulted in the suspicion by the Indians that she was conspiring against
+them.
+
+W. H. Gray, the secular agent, was a young, fine-looking, daring, and
+athletic man, very skilful in making and handling boats, teams, waggons,
+and anything else of a practical nature. He was so positive and even
+violent in his views as to alienate many with whom he came in contact. Yet
+he was one of the manliest men that ever came to Oregon, and was
+intimately connected with nearly every important event in the history of
+the Columbia River, navigation included. His four sons, all born in
+Oregon, became steamboat captains and pilots, and without question, no one
+family has been so intimately associated with the River as has the Gray
+family. If any one group of people could be said to have filed a claim on
+the River, it is the family of W. H. Gray. Gray's history is of high
+value, yet so intense was his hatred of the Hudson's Bay Company and of
+the British in general, as well as of Roman Catholics, that his book has
+been subjected to unsparing criticism by later writers.
+
+The little missionary band of five, accompanied by the two Nez Perce
+Indians who had gone East with Whitman the year before, joined the
+westbound caravan of the American Fur Company, and journeyed with them the
+greater part of the way. One of the most thrilling and suggestive moments
+in their journey was when they stood on the summit of the Rockies at South
+Pass. There they looked down the westward maze of mountains and valleys
+drained by the Snake River and its tributaries as these swept west to join
+the Columbia and thence proceed to the Pacific. With that vision before
+them, they spread the Stars and Stripes to the breeze and kneeling upon
+the turf, they took possession of the great unknown to the westward in the
+name of God and the American Union. Nobly was the claim maintained, though
+with it came the crown of martyrdom.
+
+Whitman desired above all other things to demonstrate the feasibility of a
+waggon road to the Pacific. He therefore insisted on taking his
+waggon,--"_Chick-chick-shaile-kikash_," the Indians called it, in
+attempted onomatopoeia. His demonstration was successful, though the
+trouble was infinite. He was compelled to leave the waggon at the Hudson's
+Bay Fort on the Boise, near the present site of Boise City, with the
+intention of getting it the next year. The Hudson's Bay people used every
+effort to discourage Whitman in his waggon enterprise, though according to
+Gray, they made much use of the vehicle in their fort.
+
+On September 2, 1836, the mission party reached the Hudson's Bay Company's
+fort at the mouth of the Walla Walla, a little more than four months and
+two thousand two hundred miles from the banks of the Missouri to those of
+the Columbia.
+
+But the journey was not complete, for their definite location must yet be
+selected. They proceeded now in bateaux down the Great River to Vancouver,
+the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's empire. There Dr.
+McLoughlin, the chief factor, met them with his own peculiar cordiality,
+and yet with the dignity befitting the head of so great an establishment.
+He was a noble man, and though business considerations and the orders of
+the directors of the company would have led him to "freeze out" the
+Americans, yet humanity and his own genial nature forbade him to withhold
+the cordial hand from the mission band. The fort and two ships in the
+river were arrayed in gala attire in honour of the event. Dr. McLoughlin
+did the honours of his spacious hall to Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding in
+a style that would have graced a baronial mansion.
+
+By Dr. McLoughlin's advice, since the Methodist mission had been located
+in the Willamette Valley, Whitman decided to establish himself among the
+Cayuses in the beautiful and fertile valley of the Walla Walla, at
+Waiilatpu, the "Place of the Rye-grass." Spalding accepted the urgent
+appeal of the Nez Perces to go a hundred and twenty-five miles eastward to
+Lapwai on the Clearwater, near the modern site of Lewiston. Both stations
+were fair to look upon, with every natural advantage. It proved, however,
+that the Cayuses were fierce and intractable, while the Nez Perces, though
+warlike and manly, were also docile, ambitious to learn, and predisposed
+to friendly relations with the Americans.
+
+In 1838, the American Board of Foreign Missions sent a reinforcement to
+the field, consisting of Revs. Elkanah Walker, Cushing Eells, A. B. Smith,
+and their wives. Mr. Gray, who had returned the previous year in order to
+organise this reinforcement, had found a wife, and with her was now
+accompanying this second missionary band to Oregon.
+
+Messrs. Walker and Eells located at Tshimakain, on what is now called
+Walker's Prairie, near Spokane. Mr. Smith went to Kamiah up the
+Clearwater, about sixty miles from Mr. Spalding's station at Lapwai.
+
+Time fails to speak of the many interesting events marking each of the
+missions. They were all located in singularly attractive spots, and every
+one of the missionaries made great progress in cultivating the ground,
+building mills, houses, and fences, and interesting the Indians in the
+arts of peace. It is true that when the novelty of the white man's ways
+had passed, many of the natives lost all interest. Yet upon the Spokanes
+and the Nez Perces, lasting influences were wrought. The Nez Perces in
+particular, under the influence of their noble and intelligent chief,
+Hal-hal-tlos-sot, or Lawyer, almost decided the fate of American
+institutions in the upper Columbia River region for years.
+
+One of the especially interesting events in connection with the Nez Perce
+mission was the acquisition by Mr. Spalding of the first printing-press
+used west of the Rocky Mountains. This was donated by the church of Rev.
+H. Bingham at Honolulu in 1839. The indefatigable Spalding, with the
+assistance of his wife, who had unusual powers as a linguist, began at
+once reducing the Nez Perce language to a written form and printing in it
+translations of hymns and portions of the Bible. Some of these first books
+of the Columbia River are still in existence. The venerable printing-press
+is in the museum of the Oregon Pioneer Society at Portland.
+
+The most dramatic and influential event in connection with the missions of
+the Columbia, one of the most so in all American history, was Dr.
+Whitman's mid-winter ride in 1842-43 from Waiilatpu to St. Louis. Dr.
+Whitman, in common with Jason Lee, soon began to perceive that the
+Columbia Valley possessed resources and a location which would inevitably
+make it the seat of a civilised population. The corollary of this was that
+the mission must conform to the movements of the whites and in time cease
+to be simply an Indian mission. He perceived another thing. That was the
+purpose of the Hudson's Bay Company to hold Oregon under English
+possession and keep it a wilderness for the sake of the fur-trade. The
+corollary of that was that, if American families could be induced to
+locate in Oregon, they would in time topple the scale in favour of
+American ownership.
+
+The value of Oregon was then but dimly understood among the Americans.
+Webster, Benton, and others of the great statesmen are on record in the
+_Congressional Globe_ with many disparaging remarks upon "that worthless
+Columbia River country."
+
+Whitman watched all signs with anxious eye. Negotiations between England
+and the United States indicated a probable surrender to the former. The
+American Board was considering the abandonment of the mission. Looking
+over the broad field of the future of the American nation with a
+statesman's vision, Dr. Whitman readily saw that the interests of his
+country and of Christian civilisation demanded the acquisition of Oregon.
+Those interests were in jeopardy. He made the great resolution to proceed
+at once to the "States" with the threefold aim: confer with the officers
+of the American Board on the retention of the mission, confer with
+President Tyler, Secretary Webster, and such others of the officers of
+government as he could see at Washington, and finally help organise and
+lead back to Oregon an American immigration. His fellow-missionaries
+strongly opposed his purpose. They felt that it was abandoning the
+religious aims of the mission to take up political questions. But he
+declared that he had not expatriated himself by becoming a missionary. Go
+he would. The undertaking seemed chimerical, even desperate. But Whitman
+was bold, athletic, persistent, possessing all the qualities of a hero.
+
+With a single white companion, A. L. Lovejoy, and one or more Indian
+guides, he left Waiilatpu on October 3, 1842. His journey through snow,
+ice, wind, hunger, peril, and deprivation of every sort, has been ofttimes
+described. The extent of his influence in securing the adoption by our
+Government of the policy of retaining Oregon has become the theme of
+earnest, even acrimonious discussion. The simple fact remains that Oregon
+was "saved" to the American Union. The missionaries Lee and Whitman bore,
+each his part, and a great one, in the great final result. It is not too
+much to say that of the various lines of influence by which the valley of
+the Columbia became American territory, that of missions was one of the
+strongest.
+
+The Catholic missions of the Columbia Valley have found several
+chroniclers, of whom the most valuable are Rev. F. N. Blanchet and Rev.
+Pierre J. De Smet. The former in his book, _The Catholic Church in
+Oregon_, gives a clear and circumstantial account of the founding and
+carrying on of the work in the Willamette Valley. The latter in his
+_Oregon Missions_, and _Western Missions and Missionaries_, has given a
+singularly graphic and interesting report on religious progress, and with
+it many charming descriptions of the scenery and other natural conditions
+of the country.
+
+Father Blanchet, in company with Rev. Modest Demers, went from Montreal to
+Vancouver, a journey of over four thousand miles, in 1837. At the Little
+Dalles of the Columbia, near the present Northport, a lamentable disaster
+cost the lives of twelve of the company with whom they were travelling.
+Reaching Vancouver on November 24, 1837, they received from Dr.
+McLoughlin, who had himself been brought up a Catholic, a most cordial
+welcome, though apparently not more cordial than the good man had given
+Lee, the Methodist, and Whitman, the Presbyterian. The fact that there
+were so many French Canadians in the country made the way of the Catholic
+Fathers easier than that of the other missionaries. For the French, with
+their gayety, sociability, and usual habit of intermarriage with the
+Indians, were much more popular with them than were the more harsh and
+reserved British and Americans. In fact the Catholic Fathers found a
+building all ready for their use at the historic town of Champoeg on the
+Willamette, thirty miles above Portland. There in 1836, the French
+settlers had built a log church, the first church building in Oregon. It
+is rather sad to relate that petty dissensions and jealousies marred the
+relations between the Catholics and the Methodists. But both alike were
+zealous and indefatigable in promoting the secular and religious interests
+of both red men and white men.
+
+While Fathers Blanchet and Demers and their associates were busily engaged
+in the Willamette Valley, Father de Smet had come in 1840 into the
+Flathead country, in what is now Northern Idaho. His first mission was
+St. Mary's, on the Flathead River, founded by the planting of the cross on
+September 24, 1841. Other missions were soon established on Coeur
+d'Alene Lake and Pend Oreille Lake. Branching out from them were missions
+in Colville, and ultimately in the Walla Walla, Yakima, Wenatchee, and
+Chelan valleys.
+
+De Smet greatly overestimated the number of Indians, reckoning those in
+Oregon at one hundred and ten thousand. He numbered his converts by the
+thousands. So pressing seemed the needs that in 1843, he went to Europe
+for reinforcements. He was very successful in his quest, returning the
+following year in the ship _L'Indefatigable_, from Antwerp, accompanied by
+four fathers, six sisters, and several lay brothers. He gives a thrilling
+account of his entrance of the Columbia River on July 31, 1844. He vividly
+portrays the terrors of the bar with the mighty surges dashing across the
+entrance. The captain did not understand the channel and became diverted
+from the true course, which was then by the north channel, and got into
+the south. The latter is now the main channel, but then was dangerous. De
+Smet piously regards their escape from wreck as due to the special
+interposition of divine providence, and to the favour extended to them
+because of its being the day sacred to St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of
+their order. De Smet's brilliant and poetical descriptions of the grandeur
+of the river and its forests denote a keen appreciation of nature and a
+facile pen.
+
+Demers, De Smet, and Blanchet entered upon their work with such energy
+that by the time of De Smet's report in 1844 there had been established
+four dioceses in the region tributary to the Columbia; viz., Oregon City,
+Walla Walla, Fort Hall, and Colville. Oregon City was the Metropolitan See
+and in charge of Rev. F. N. Blanchet. Walla Walla was under the direction
+of Rev. Magloire Blanchet, who at that date had charge also of Forts Hall
+and Colville. Eleven chapels had been erected at different points; five in
+the Willamette Valley, one at Vancouver, one on the Cowlitz, one on
+Coeur d'Alene Lake, one on Pend Oreille Lake, one at Kettle Falls on the
+Columbia near Colville, and one near Calispell among the Flatheads. There
+were three schools; one being St. Mary's among the Flatheads, while at St.
+Paul's on the Willamette, there were two, a college for boys, still the
+site of a college, and a girls' academy. Twelve clergymen were engaged at
+that time in the work, and the number was soon increased to twenty-six by
+another reinforcement from Europe. With the reinforcement were also seven
+female teachers.
+
+Each of these three chief groups of missions had its special aims,
+methods, and results. The Catholic was more exclusively religious, while
+the Protestants passed over readily from their initial religious aims to
+the domain of political and educational interest. The net result was
+tremendous in the history of the country.
+
+Among the educational institutions growing directly out of the labours of
+the missionaries we may mention Willamette University at Salem, the direct
+successor of the Methodist mission at Chemeketa; Whitman College at Walla
+Walla, founded by Cushing Eells as a memorial to Marcus Whitman; Pacific
+University at Forest Grove, Oregon, founded by a later set of
+Congregational Home Missionaries; and the Catholic College at St. Paul's,
+the successor of the school founded in 1839 by Blanchet.
+
+    They rest from their labours and their works do follow them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+The Era of the Pioneers: their Ox-teams and their Flatboats
+
+    Events and Men who led the Way to the Pioneer Age--Kelley, Wyeth, and
+    Bonneville--Ewing Young--Farnham, Shortess, and the "Oregon
+    Dragoons"--The Wilkes Expedition--The _Star of Oregon_, and the Cattle
+    Enterprise--Dr. John McLoughlin and the Americans--Dr. Marcus Whitman
+    and his Winter Ride, and the Immigration of 1843--Retrospect of J. W.
+    Nesmith--Features of the Journey across the Plains--Whitman's
+    Services--Getting the Waggons across the Plains--Reaching the River
+    and Building Boats--Delights and then Distress of the Descent of the
+    River--Battle with the River--Condition in which they Reached
+    Vancouver, and their Reception by Dr. McLoughlin--Subsequent
+    Immigrations--The Barlow Road--The Donation Land Law--Quotation from
+    Jesse Applegate.
+
+
+The pioneer era was ushered in by the coming to Oregon of fur-hunters,
+missionaries, and little bands of adventurers, who together composed the
+nucleus of that American community which formed the Provisional Government
+of 1843. There were certain individuals, too, whose agency in leading the
+way to the immigration movement was so unique as to deserve mention.
+
+One of these was Hall J. Kelley of Boston. He was a native of New
+Hampshire and a Harvard graduate. As early as 1815, when seventeen years
+old, he conceived the idea of the colonisation of Americans in Oregon. He
+was a man of high scholarship, philanthropic spirit, and patriotic
+purpose. He was a dreamer and idealist, planning to form a community on
+the Columbia, as one of the Utopias which minds of that stamp, from Plato
+down, have been fond of locating somewhere in the unexplored West. After
+making a great effort, with partial success, to enlist Congress in his
+schemes, he succeeded in organising a company of several hundred, and by
+1828 shaped the definite plan of going to St. Louis and following the
+route of the fur companies across the plains to the River of Oregon. But
+opposition by those same fur companies, and adverse criticism by the press
+broke up his enterprise for that time. In 1832 he started with a small
+party for the land of his dreams by the route through Mexico and
+California. In California, he met with Ewing Young, an American of great
+natural abilities and some education. Young and Kelley, brainy and
+original men, the former from shrewd commercial instinct and the latter
+from philanthropic dreams, formed a little company, and proceeded overland
+from California to Oregon. This was in the autumn of 1834. When, after
+some disasters, the company of eleven reached the Columbia, Young took up
+a great tract of land in the Chehalem Valley, where he devoted himself to
+stock-raising. Kelley, having become an invalid, went in distress to Fort
+Vancouver, where Dr. McLoughlin treated him with kindness, though the
+exclusive "Britishers" would not admit him to "social equality." The other
+members of the company were scattered in various directions, but some of
+them remained till American occupancy became an accomplished fact.
+
+This company of 1834,--the same year that the Methodist missionaries
+under Jason Lee arrived--may be considered the advance guard of American
+immigration. Kelley, upon his return to New England by way of the Sandwich
+Islands, disseminated much useful information about Oregon. To him,
+without doubt, is to be attributed much of the subsequent wave of interest
+which swept on toward American immigration. As first a New England college
+man, educator, and social theoriser, and then a leader of the pioneer
+movement to Oregon, Hall J. Kelley is worthy of permanent remembrance.
+
+Ewing Young became distinguished for leading the party which in 1837 drove
+a band of seven hundred cattle from California to Oregon. This even marked
+an epoch in preparing for immigration and subsequent American possession.
+One of the peculiarly noteworthy facts in connection with Young's
+enterprise, is that Dr. McLoughlin, the Hudson's Bay Company's magnate,
+who had at first discountenanced Young on account of a charge of stealing
+brought against him from California, and who frowned upon the cattle
+enterprise for fear of American influence, became reconciled to both Young
+and the cattle, and subscribed liberally to the enterprise.
+
+Nearly contemporary with Kelley and Young were Bonneville and Wyeth.
+
+Bonneville was a well-educated French-American, a West Pointer, and
+holding the commission of captain in the United States Army. His ardent
+and imaginative disposition became fired with the thought of a far western
+expedition, and in 1832 he organised a fur-traders' company of a hundred
+and ten men. Though not realising his dreams of a fortune in furs,
+Bonneville made many interesting and valuable observations upon the
+Salmon, Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers. He became thoroughly
+imbued with the romance and scenic grandeur of the far West. Upon his
+return to New York, he had the good fortune to meet Washington Irving at
+the home of John Jacob Astor. Irving had already felt the irresistible
+fascination which the River of Oregon has wrought upon all poetical
+natures, and the result of this meeting was one of Irving's most charming
+volumes, _Bonneville's Adventures_, a volume which became another potent
+force in turning toward the Pacific slope the thoughts of the eager,
+restless people of the frontier.
+
+Still another in the group of men who led the way to immigration was
+Nathaniel Wyeth. He was a talented, well-educated, and energetic
+Bostonian. So distinguished a personage as James Russell Lowell has said
+of him: "He was a very remarkable person, whose conversation I valued
+highly. A born leader of men, he was fitly called Captain Nathaniel Wyeth
+as long as he lived."
+
+Wyeth conceived the idea of a great trading company on the Columbia, whose
+operations would necessarily create rivalry with the British. His design
+was to send companies across the continent to the Columbia head-waters and
+to maintain also ship connection by way of Cape Horn. He believed that a
+ship load of salmon from the Columbia River to the Atlantic sea-board
+would be a paying venture. On so large a scale did he lay out his
+enterprise that he expected soon to have a business of two hundred
+thousand dollars a year. But he looked beyond the fur and salmon business
+to American possession and settlement, at least south of the River to the
+California line. He therefore embraced in his view the building of
+enterprises which should lead up to and then profit by American
+immigration. Wyeth spent five years in Oregon, having many interesting
+adventures, and as many business reverses. As was the case with Astor, the
+British fur-traders proved too powerful for the Yankee. Among other
+undertakings, he built a fort on Sauvie's Island at the mouth of the
+Willamette, which he called Fort William. He desired to make this the
+basis of his trade, and he expected the Indians to go there to trade. But
+such was the influence of the Hudson's Bay people and their employees with
+the Indians that Wyeth's fort had no trade. It was during those years that
+a frightful pestilence swept the natives away like flies, and there was
+great fear among them that Wyeth's fort might harbour the scourge. The
+period of Wyeth's enterprise in Oregon extended from the spring of 1832 to
+the autumn of 1836. Though not a business success, it had a great bearing
+on the creation of an interest in Oregon, and on preparing for immigration
+a few years later. It opened the eyes of many Americans to the attractions
+of Oregon and to the tremendous power and profits of the Hudson's Bay
+Company.
+
+The next movement may be called a real immigration to Oregon. It consisted
+of a party of nineteen, commonly known as the "Peoria party," since they
+went from Peoria, Ill. Jason Lee, the missionary of Chemeketa, delivered a
+lecture at that place in 1838, and so much interest in Oregon was aroused
+that in the year following, the Peoria party, the first regular party
+from the Mississippi Valley, set forth for the River of the West. Their
+leader, T. J. Farnham, christened his followers the "Oregon Dragoons" and
+Mrs. Farnham gave them a flag with the inscription, "Oregon or the Grave."
+Farnham declared his purpose to seize Oregon for the United States.
+
+The Peoria party had the good fortune to have two writers in the number,
+whose accounts possess rare interest. These writers were the leader
+Farnham, and Robert Shortess. The party went to pieces at Bent's Fort on
+the Arkansas, but its members reached Oregon somewhat in driblets during
+that year, and the one following. Shortess reached the Whitman Mission at
+Walla Walla in the fall of 1839, and there he remained until the following
+spring, when he went down the River to The Dalles. From The Dalles, he
+made his way over the Cascade Mountains to the Willamette Valley, and
+there he lived many years. Farnham also finally reached Oregon, but his
+avowed mission was unfulfilled. Shortess says of him: "Instead of raising
+the American flag and turning the Hudson's Bay Company out-of-doors, he
+accepted the gift of a suit of clothes and a passage to the Sandwich
+Islands, and took a final leave of Oregon." But upon his return to the
+"States," Farnham published a _Pictorial History of Oregon and
+California_, a book of many interesting features, and one which played a
+worthy part in waking the people of the Mississippi Valley to the
+attractions of the Pacific Coast.
+
+Soon after the close of Wyeth's enterprise, there were two notable
+government expeditions to the Columbia River. One was commanded by Sir
+Edward Belcher of the British Navy, and the other by Lieutenant Charles
+Wilkes of the American Navy. The Wilkes expedition was one of the most
+interesting and important ever undertaken by the United States Government.
+The squadron consisted of two sloops-of-war, the _Peacock_ and the
+_Vincennes_, the store ship, _Relief_, the brig, _Porpoise_, and the
+schooners, _Sea Gull_ and _Flying Fish_. This fine squadron took up its
+principal station on Puget Sound, from which extensive surveys were made,
+one across the mountains to Fort Okanogan; another of the Cowlitz Valley
+and the Columbia River as far as Wallula.
+
+One of the most important results of this elaborate Wilkes expedition was
+to establish in the minds of officers of the Government the essential
+unity of all parts of the Pacific Coast and the boundless opportunities
+offered to American immigration. Wilkes and his intelligent officers
+readily grasped, and conveyed through an elaborate report to the
+government, the idea that Puget Sound was an inherent and integral part of
+Oregon and that the Columbia Basin was essential to the proper development
+of American commerce upon the Pacific. They may also have forecast the
+time when California with her girdles of gold and chaplets of freedom
+would spring, Athena-like, from the Zeus brain of American enterprise. The
+control of the River was the key to the control of the entire coast from
+San Diego to the Straits of Fuca;--and American ownership should have
+extended to Sitka.
+
+A memorable calamity occurred to the squadron upon its entrance to the
+River, and that was the loss of the _Peacock_ on the Columbia River bar.
+The oft-depicted terrors of the River were realised at that time, and yet
+it was not the River's fault for the _Peacock_ was out of the channel.
+The spit is known as "Peacock Spit" to this day.
+
+Among the many episodes connecting Wilkes with the early immigration was
+the building of the schooner _Star of Oregon_ and her voyage to California
+for cattle. This was in 1842. It will be remembered that Ewing Young had
+made a successful trip from California with cattle. But as the population
+of the Columbia had increased, there was a great desire among the settlers
+to obtain a larger number of cattle to let loose upon the rich pasture
+lands of the Willamette Valley. A little group of Americans conceived the
+adventurous project of building a schooner of Oregon timber, sailing with
+her to California, exchanging her there for stock, and driving the band
+across the country home again. The schooner was built by Felix Hathaway,
+Joseph Gale, and Ralph Kilbourne. The oak and fir timber of which the
+vessel was built was cut on Sauvie's Island, at the mouth of the
+Willamette, and in due time she was launched and taken to Willamette Falls
+for fitting. A difficulty arose. Dr. McLoughlin refused to sell sails,
+cordage, and other materials. He had the only supply in Oregon. In despair
+the enterprising ship-builders appealed to Lieutenant Wilkes. He felt a
+keen interest in their laudable undertaking and made a visit to McLoughlin
+to try to change his resolution. By assuring the Doctor that he would be
+responsible both for all the bills, as well as for the good conduct of the
+party, he induced him to allow the requisition for all materials necessary
+to complete the gallant craft. Gale was the only sailor in the party.
+Having satisfied Wilkes that he was qualified to command a ship, and
+having received from him a present of a flag, an ensign, a compass,
+kedge-anchor, hawser, log line, and two log glasses, the captain flung the
+flag to the Oregon breeze and turned the prow of the _Star of Oregon_
+toward the River's mouth. She may be remembered as the first sea-going
+vessel built of Oregon timber. Crossing the Bar in a storm, she sped
+southward in a spanking breeze, all hands seasick except Gale. He held the
+wheel thirty-six hours continuously, and in five days "dashed through the
+portals of the Golden Gate like an arrow, September 17, 1842."
+
+As it was too late to get the cattle back to Oregon that fall, the party
+sold their schooner for three hundred and fifty cows, wintered in
+California, and the next spring drove to the Columbia twelve hundred and
+fifty head of cattle, six hundred head of mules and horses, and three
+thousand sheep. This was an achievement which made the way for immigration
+clearer than ever before, and in a most effective manner united the
+American settlers with the American government. Some of the Hudson's Bay
+Company people could begin to see the handwriting on the wall. Dr.
+McLoughlin saw most quickly and most clearly, and as elsewhere narrated,
+began to transfer his interests to the American side. This fine old man
+was big-brained, big-bodied, and big-souled, a natural American, though
+compelled to work for the British fur monopolists for the time. He admired
+the independent spirit of the incoming Yankee immigrants, even when the
+joke was on him. He afterwards told with much gusto of an American named
+Woods crossing the Columbia to Vancouver to try to get goods. He found his
+credit shaky, and somewhat piqued, he exclaimed: "Well, never mind, I
+have an uncle back East rich enough to buy out the whole of your old
+Hudson's Bay Company!" "Well, well, Mr. Woods," demanded the autocrat,
+"who may this very rich uncle of yours be?" "Uncle Sam," was the unabashed
+and characteristic American reply. "Old Whitehead" also appreciated,
+though he was obliged to manifest a dignified disapproval, when two young
+men from New York, having reached the fort on the River, were asked about
+their passports. Laying their hands on their rifles they replied, "These
+are an American's passports."
+
+These small miscellaneous immigrations were in continuance from about 1830
+to 1842. In the latter year a hundred came. In 1843, as elsewhere related,
+the Provisional Government was instituted. At the very same time, the
+immigration of 1843 was on its way to the River.
+
+This immigration of 1843 was in many respects the most remarkable of all.
+It was the first large one, and it was a type of all. It will be
+remembered that Dr. Marcus Whitman had made his great winter ride in
+1842-43 across the Rockies to St. Louis, with a double aim. First he
+wished to see the officers of the American Board of Missions, and then to
+enlist the American government and people in the policy of holding Oregon
+against the manifest aims of the British. There was already a tremendous
+interest felt in Oregon among the people of Missouri, Illinois, and the
+other great prairie States. Whitman's opportune arrival and his announced
+purpose to guide an immigration to the Columbia became widely known, and
+brought to a focus many vaguely-considered plans.
+
+J. W. Nesmith, subsequently one of the most prominent pioneers and a
+member of each House of Congress from Oregon, has given a humorous account
+of the manner of starting this immigration of 1843, of which he was a
+member, which is so characteristic that we quote it here.
+
+    Mr. Burnett, or as he was more familiarly styled, "Pete," was called
+    upon for a speech. Mounting a log the glib-tongued orator delivered a
+    glowing florid address. He commenced by showing his audience that the
+    then western tier of states and territories were crowded with a
+    redundant population, who had not sufficient elbow room for the
+    expansion of their enterprise and genius, and it was a duty they owed
+    to themselves and posterity to strike out in search of a more expanded
+    field and a more genial climate, where the soil yielded the richest
+    return for the slightest amount of cultivation,--where the trees were
+    loaded with perennial fruit,--and where a good substitute for bread,
+    called La Camash, grew in the ground; where salmon and other fish
+    crowded the streams; and where the principal labour of the settlers
+    would be confined to keeping their gardens free from the inroads of
+    buffalo, elk, deer, and wild turkeys. He appealed to our patriotism by
+    picturing forth the glorious empire we should establish upon the
+    shores of the Pacific,--how with our trusty rifles we should drive out
+    the British usurpers who claimed the soil, and defend the country from
+    the avarice and pretensions of the British Lion,--and how posterity
+    would honour us for placing the fairest portion of the land under the
+    Stars and Stripes.... Other speeches were made full of glowing
+    descriptions of the fair land of promise, the far-away Oregon, which
+    no one in the assemblage had ever seen, and about which not more than
+    half a dozen had ever read any account. After the election of Mr.
+    Burnett as captain, and other necessary officers, the meeting, as
+    motley and primitive a one as ever assembled, adjourned with "three
+    cheers" for Captain Burnett and Oregon.
+
+Peter Burnett to whom Nesmith here refers, was the same who became the
+first governor of California.
+
+By the walnut hearth-fires in many a home of the prairie States and at the
+corn-huskings and quilting bees the talk of Oregon and the forests of the
+Columbia, and the rich pasture lands of the Willamette, and the salmon and
+game, and genial climate and majestic mountains, went the rounds. Interest
+grew into enthusiasm, enthusiasm waxed hot, and in the early spring the
+great immigration of 1843 set forth from Westport, Missouri, for the
+Columbia waters. Though the immigration of 1843 was the earliest of any
+size and the first with any number of women and children, it had perhaps
+the least trouble and misfortune and the most romance and gayety and
+enthusiasm of any. The experience of crossing the plains was one which
+nothing else could duplicate;--the hasty rising in the chill damp of the
+morning, the preparing the cattle and horses for the long, hard drive, the
+rounds of the waggons to strengthen bolts and tires and tongues, the
+loading of the rifles for possible hostile Indians or buffalo, the setting
+forth of the scouts on horseback, the long train strung across the dusty
+plain, the occasional bands of wild Indians emerging like a whirlwind from
+the broad expanse, and then the approaching cool of night with its hurried
+rest on the rough prairie sod. Sometimes there were nights of storm and
+stampede and darkness. Sometimes savage beasts and savage men startled the
+train, or one of the stupendous herds of buffalo went thundering across
+the prairie. Then came the first glimpse of snowy heights, then of deep
+canyons, and then the summit was attained, and far westward stretched the
+maze of plains and mountains through which the Snake River, the greatest
+of the tributaries of the Columbia, took its swift way.
+
+During most of the journey, Dr. Marcus Whitman was guide, physician, and
+friend. While severe controversy has arisen as to the extent of his
+services in organising the immigration, the testimony is unvarying as to
+the value of his presence with the train. Last to bed at night and first
+up in the morning, attending both people, cattle, and horses in their
+sicknesses and accidents, ahead of the train on horseback to find the
+passes of the hills and the fords of the rivers, the watcher by night and
+the pilot by day, the missionary doctor was the veritable "Mr. Greatheart"
+of the immigration.
+
+Great was the astonishment of Captain Grant, commandant of the Hudson's
+Bay Fort Hall on Snake River, near the present Pocatello, when the long
+train filed past the enclosure. Grant had known Whitman before and was
+aware of his stubborn determination and patriotic purpose. But Grant
+attempted just the same to dissuade the immigrants of 1843 from going
+farther with their waggons, declaring the Blue Mountains to be impassable.
+The doughty doctor simply laughed quietly and told the immigrants to push
+on, and he would see them through. But just as they were entering the
+rough defiles of the Blue Mountains, a band of Indians from Waiilatpu,
+headed by Sticcus, came to meet the train, searching for Whitman, telling
+him that his medical services were in great demand at Lapwai. The
+much-needed guide turned over the pilotage of the train to Sticcus, and he
+himself hastened on to minister to the sick at Lapwai. As he passed
+through Waiilatpu he learned that the threatening conduct of the Indians
+had led Mrs. Whitman to go to Vancouver, and that during his absence the
+Indians had burned his mill and committed other depredations. But it was
+his lot to labour and suffer. He had become accustomed to it.
+
+The event proved that Sticcus was a thoroughly capable guide. For, though
+not speaking a word of English, he made his directions so well understood
+by pantomime that, as Mr. Nesmith has said, he led them safely over the
+roughest mountain road that they ever saw. And so in due time the train
+emerged from the screen of timber on the Blue Mountains. Stretched wide
+before them, lay the plains of Umatilla and Walla Walla, while in the far
+distance the River of the West poured through the arid waste. Yet farther
+the snow summits of the Cascades ridged the western sky. After a brief
+pause at Waiilatpu, the train reached the banks of the River. The
+immediate vicinity of the section of the River first reached is very dry
+in autumn. Aside from the River itself, the immediate scene is desolate
+and forbidding. But probably those immigrants of '43 gazed upon the blue
+flood, a mile wide and hastening to the western ocean, with feelings
+almost akin to those which swelled the hearts of the Pilgrims landing from
+the _Mayflower_. This was another epic of state-making, and one generation
+after another of the Americans who have wrought such achievement may well
+turn back to join hands with those before.
+
+Doubtless the immigrants, as they stood by the River in the pleasant haze
+of the October afternoon, felt as though their journey was substantially
+at an end. Being now at Fort Walla Walla on the river of that name, they
+paused to make ready for the last stage of the journey, little realising
+what perils and sufferings it would entail. Dr. Whitman and Archibald
+McKinley, the chief factor at the fort, advised them to leave their cattle
+and waggons to winter on the Walla Walla, while they pursued their way
+down the stream on flatboats. Part of the company accepted the advice, but
+a number determined to keep all their belongings together and to take
+their road along the bank of the River to The Dalles, and there make their
+flatboats.
+
+To those who remained on the Walla Walla now fell the difficult task of
+constructing flatboats. Huge, uncouth, structures they were, made of
+timber gathered on the river bank. But when loaded and pushed out into the
+swift current, steered with immense sweeps in the stern, these flatboats
+afforded to the footsore and exhausted immigrants a delightful change. Out
+of the dust, off the rocks, away from the sage-brush, with more of laugh
+and song than they had had for many a day, they swept gaily on. For a
+hundred miles or more the elements were propitious. With the bright
+sunshine, the clear, cool water, the majestic snow-peaks in the distance,
+the easily gliding boats,--this seemed the pleasantest part of the entire
+journey. But after The Dalles had been reached and the two divisions of
+the company were again united and on their way down the River to the
+Cascades, disaster began to haunt them. At the Cascades, a boat with
+several members of the Applegate family, one of the most prominent in the
+immigration as well as afterwards, was overturned in the rapids, and three
+of the party drowned in the boiling surge. Two were saved in a way that
+seems almost miraculous. One of these was a young boy, the other a young
+man. The boy was very active and an excellent swimmer. After the
+overturning of the boat he was carried two miles in the current, part of
+the time being entirely sucked under by the whirling under-current. After
+being tossed with violence betwixt rock and wave till it seemed that he
+must expire, he was suddenly spewed forth upon a ledge of slippery rock,
+to which he clung desperately till he had recovered breath. Then he drew
+himself up on a narrow shelf, and at the same instant saw the young man
+swept by. Reaching forth, the brave boy managed to bring the struggling
+man to the same shelter with himself. But when they had regained
+sufficient strength to examine their surroundings, they discovered that
+they were on a rocky niche from which they could find no ascent of the
+ragged precipitous cliff. They were in a trap. Looking across the River,
+they could see that the bank was smooth and that on that side lay the
+trail. Young Applegate saw that a reef extended a considerable part of the
+way across the River, and desperate as the attempt seemed, he resolved to
+pick his way along the reef to a point whence he might swim to the other
+shore. It was his only chance for life. Fearful as were the odds, the
+daring lad accomplished his aim. He emerged on the further end of the
+reef. Looking around, he discovered that his comrade had not possessed the
+nerve to follow. And then,--most wonderful of all,--back he went to assist
+his more timid fellow. In this, too, he succeeded, and after a return in
+which they should have been drowned a dozen times, they both reached the
+farther end of the reef. There casting themselves again into the
+inhospitable flood, they buffeted their way to shore. Battered, bruised,
+exhausted, they yet recovered and lived to a good old age to tell the tale
+of their fight with the Columbia River.
+
+From the Cascades to Vancouver, the company suffered more than in all the
+rest of their journey. The fall rains were at hand, and it poured with an
+unremitting energy such as no one can realise who has not seen a rain
+storm on the lower River. Food had become almost exhausted. Clothing was
+in rags. Tired, hungry, wet, cold, disheartened, the immigrants who had so
+jauntily descended the River to this "Strait of Horrors," presented a most
+woful appearance. It actually seemed that many must perish. But in the
+crisis, help came. One of the party managed to procure a canoe and
+hastened down the River to Fort Vancouver. As soon as Dr. McLoughlin
+learned that nearly nine hundred men, women, and children were beleaguered
+in the mist and chill, he equipped boats with flour, meat, and tea, and in
+his choleric excitement, waving his huge cane, bade the boatman hurry to
+the rescue. It was not business for the good Doctor to thus aid and abet
+American immigrants, and the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company and the
+cold-blooded Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-chief, disapproved. But it
+was humanity, and that ever predominated in the mind of "Old Whitehead."
+The next night he caused vast bonfires to be alight along the bank, and
+gathered all the eatables and blankets that the place afforded. When the
+boat loads of the battered, but rescued Americans drew near, the Doctor
+was on the bank to meet them, to hand out the women and children, to
+administer the balm of cheery words and warmth and food. Few were the
+travellers on the River, none were the immigrants of '43, who would not
+rise up and call him blessed.
+
+After this happy pause at Vancouver, the immigration passed on to the
+Willamette Falls, then the centre of operations in Oregon, and there they
+were soon joined by the chosen men who had driven their thirteen hundred
+head of cattle by the trail over the Cascade Mountains, a task toilsome
+and even distressing, but one that was accomplished. After an inactive
+winter in the mild, muggy, misty Oregon climate, the immigrants of '43
+spread abroad in the opening spring to secure land, each his square mile,
+as the Provisional Government provided, and as the American government was
+contemplating.
+
+Such was the coming of the immigrants to the River. Subsequent
+immigrations bore a general resemblance to that of 1843. Each had its
+special feature. That of 1845 was conspicuous for its size. It was three
+thousand strong. It was also illustrious for the laying out of the road
+across the Cascade Mountains near the southern flank of Mt. Hood. This
+noble and difficult undertaking was carried through by S. K. Barlow and
+William Rector. It was a terrific task, and was not completed the first
+year. Canyons, precipitous rocks, morasses, sand-hills, tangled forests,
+fallen trees, criss-crossed and interlaced with briars and vines and
+shrubbery of tropical luxuriance, such as no one can appreciate who has
+not seen an Oregon jungle,--these were the obstructions to the Barlow
+Road. But they were vanquished and in 1846 and thence onward the
+immigrants made this the regular route to the Willamette Valley. So steep
+was Laurel Hill on the western slope that waggons had to be let down by
+ropes from level to level. The marks of the ropes or chains are still seen
+on the trees of Laurel Hill. The immigration of 1852 was sadly conspicuous
+for the devastations of cholera. Many a family was broken in sunder and
+some even were entirely eliminated by the dreadful plague. The
+immigrations of 1854 and 1855 were notable for the Indian outbreaks, and
+especially for the atrocious butchery of the Ward family near Boise in the
+earlier year, the most pitiless Indian outrage in Oregon history.
+
+From 1850 onward for some years the Donation Land Law of Congress was a
+great lure to immigrants, for by it a man and wife could obtain a section
+of land. A single man could take up half a section. That situation
+encouraged early marriages. Girls were in great demand. It was not
+uncommon to see fourteen-year-old brides. Some narrators relate having
+found married women in the woods of the Columbia who were playing with
+their dolls! But though the immigrations varied in special features, they
+were all alike in their mingling of mirth and melancholy, of toil and
+rest, of suffering and enjoyment, of heroism, and self-sacrifice. They
+embodied an epoch of American history that can never come again. To have
+been an immigrant from the Missouri to the Columbia was an experience to
+which nothing else on earth is comparable. It confers a title of American
+nobility by the side of which the coronets of some European dukes are
+tawdry and contemptible. Perhaps no one ever better phrased the spirit of
+Oregon immigration than Jesse Applegate of the train of '43, one of the
+foremost of Oregon's builders, long known as the "Sage of Yoncalla." So
+fitting do we deem his language that we quote here an extract from one of
+his addresses.
+
+    The Western pioneer had probably crossed the Blue Ridge or the
+    Cumberland Mountains when a boy and was now in his prime. Rugged,
+    hardy, and powerful of frame, he was full to overflowing with the love
+    of adventure, and animated by a brave soul that scorned the very idea
+    of fear. All had heard of the perpetually green hills and plains of
+    Western Oregon, and how the warm breath of the vast Pacific tempered
+    the air to the genial degree and drove winter back to the North. Many
+    of them contrasted in imagination the open stretch of a mile square of
+    rich, green, and grassy land, where the strawberry plant bloomed
+    through every winter month, with their circumscribed clearings in the
+    Missouri bottoms. Of long winter evenings neighbours visited each
+    other, and before the big shell-bark hickory fire, the seasoned walnut
+    fire, the dry black-jack fire, or the roaring dead elm fire, they
+    talked these things over; and as a natural consequence, under these
+    favourable circumstances, the spirit of emigration warmed up; and the
+    "Oregon fever" became as a household expression. Thus originated the
+    vast cavalcade, or emigrant train, stretching its serpentine length
+    for miles, enveloped in vast pillars of dust, patiently wending its
+    toilsome way across the American continent.
+
+    How familiar these scenes and experiences with the old pioneers! The
+    vast plains, the uncountable herds of buffalo; the swift-footed
+    antelope; the bands of mounted, painted warriors; the rugged
+    snow-capped mountain ranges; the deep, swift, and dangerous rivers;
+    the lonesome howl of the wild wolf; the midnight yell of the
+    assaulting savage; the awful panic and stampede; the solemn and silent
+    funeral at the dead hour of night, and the lonely and hidden grave of
+    departed friends,--what memories are associated with the Plains
+    across!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Conflict of Nations for Possession of the River
+
+    The Six Nations at First Engaged in the Conflict--The Three Left in
+    it--Claims by Sea of Spain, England, and the United States--Claims by
+    Land--Rivalries of the Great Fur Companies--Capture of Astoria by the
+    English--Its Restoration to the United States--Appearance of Fort
+    George in 1818--Joint Occupation Treaty of 1818--Florida Treaty of
+    1819--Treaty with Russia in 1825--Forces on the Side of England and
+    those on the side of the United States--American Triumph
+    Inevitable--Policy of the Hudson's Bay Company in Contrast with that
+    of the American Immigration--Indifference of the American
+    Government--Utterances of Some American Statesmen--Doings of the
+    American People--Gathering of the Little American Colony in the
+    Willamette Valley--Need of Government--First Meeting at
+    Champoeg--Advice of Commodore Wilkes that they Delay--The "Wolf
+    Meetings"--Second Meeting at Champoeg, and Establishment of the
+    Provisional Government--Its Chief Provisions--Thornton's Account of
+    the "Hall" at Champoeg--Peter H. Burnett--Dr. McLoughlin's
+    Position--Triumphs of the American Immigrant over the Great Fur
+    Company--McLoughlin and Whitman--Movements of Diplomacy between
+    England and the United States--Webster, Linn, Benton, and
+    Calhoun--Inconsistent Positions of the Democratic Party--Polk and the
+    Platform of 54 Degrees 40 Minutes, or Fight--Near Approach of
+    War--Compromise on the Line of 49 Degrees--Momentous Nature of the
+    Issue--Triumph of American Home-builders.
+
+
+Earlier chapters of this volume have already developed some of the
+essential elements in the complicated strife of the maritime nations of
+the world for possession of the land of the Oregon. This brief chapter
+will endeavour to recapitulate and group those steps, and to trace the
+course of events by which the line finally was drawn on the parallel of 49
+degrees.
+
+As we have seen, the many-named river, and the fact that it was the key to
+a vast region and that the shores of the ocean contiguous to it seemed to
+abound in the finest of furs, was a lure to Portuguese, Frenchman,
+Russian, Spaniard, Englishman, and American. The first three became early
+eliminated from the conflict, and the last three fought the triangular
+battle to its ending with the final result that Uncle Sam inserted his
+broad shoulders between Mexico and the 49th parallel, and thus controls
+the choicest land of the sunset slope of the continent.
+
+Spain, England, and the United States each had a valid claim to Oregon.
+Spain, by the partial discovery of the River by Heceta in 1775, by the
+voyages of Bodega and Arteaga in the same year and again in 1779, and by
+the voyage of Valdez and Galiano around Vancouver Island in 1792, together
+with many other voyages of a less definite nature by illustrious
+navigators, as Malaspina, Bustamente, Elisa, and others, had a strong
+position. Yet she had failed to clinch her discoveries or to take
+effective possession.
+
+Great Britain could point to the elaborate examinations of Cook and
+Vancouver. The latter had made a minute investigation of the noble group
+of waters whose outlet preserves the name of the old Greek pilot of
+Cephalonia, Juan de Fuca; and his Lieutenant Broughton had entered the
+Columbia River and proceeded over a hundred miles up the stream. The
+nomenclature given to both the River and the Sound regions by Vancouver
+had been the first in any sense complete. So England, too, had a strong
+claim.
+
+And what were the claims of the United States? First and foremost was the
+discovery by Robert Gray of the River and his actual twenty-five-mile
+ascension of it in May, 1792. He had gone much farther than Heceta, who
+had only looked in, but he had not gone so far as Broughton. The latter
+indeed, claimed, and his government followed him in the claim, that Gray
+had not really been in the River at all, but was only in an estuary of the
+sea into which the River flowed. But that, to any one who has seen the
+River, is too much of a forced construction to stand serious examination.
+Moreover, Gray antedated Broughton by some months.
+
+Turning from sea claims to land claims, England could point to Alexander
+Mackenzie as having crossed the continent in 1792, and as having reached
+the veritable ocean at Cascade Inlet. But it again was a very strained
+construction to extend that claim so far as to include the lower Columbia
+Valley. The United States could justly advance as a sufficient offset, the
+expedition of Lewis and Clark in 1804. In 1811 David Thompson had
+traversed the entire length of the Columbia for the British flag, only to
+find the Astor Company already established under the Stars and Stripes at
+the mouth of the River. From these essential facts out of many, we can
+easily draw the conclusion that no one of these three contestants could
+justly be too arrogant and exclusive. Some degree of modesty was befitting
+each.
+
+We have already seen the rivalries of the great fur companies, the
+Hudson's Bay and the North-western of the British, and the Pacific of the
+Americans, and the effect of the War of 1812 on their fortunes. As a
+result of that war the Pacific Fur Company sold out to the North-westers,
+and a few years later the North-westers united with the Hudson's Bay
+Company under the name of the latter. To all appearance the Yankee was
+worsted, and the Briton in possession of the River.
+
+But the Treaty of Ghent in 1815, closing the War of 1812, provided that
+all territory taken by either party should be restored. The boundary line
+west of the Lake of the Woods was left undrawn. John Jacob Astor now
+applied to the Government to restore his captured property on the
+Columbia, stating that if again in possession, he would resume his former
+operations. The United States Government accordingly notified Great
+Britain of its intention to re-occupy the fort at the Columbia's mouth.
+For two years the communication lay unanswered. In September, 1817, the
+sloop-of-war, _Ontario_, Captain J. Biddle, was despatched to the Columbia
+with Mr. J. B. Provost as special agent, under instructions to assert the
+claim of the United States to the territory of the River. This decisive
+move compelled Great Britain to come out from under cover. A long and
+tedious diplomatic warfare ensued. Meanwhile the _Ontario_ was pursuing
+her long journey around Cape Horn. In 1818, an agreement was reached to
+the effect that Astoria should be formally restored to the United States,
+but that the North-western Fur Company should be allowed to remain in
+actual possession. Captain Biddle of the _Ontario_ had left Mr. Provost in
+Chile and had proceeded to the Columbia to take possession. Captain
+Sheriff, commandant of the British ships in the Pacific, being in
+Valparaiso, in H. M. S. _Blossom_, learning of Mr. Provost's presence
+there, conceived the happy thought that it would be an international
+courtesy to invite Mr. Provost to accompany him to Astoria. Accordingly on
+October 1, 1818, the _Blossom_ pushed her bow across the Bar, and on the
+6th the formal ceremony of transfer from the Union Jack to the Stars and
+Stripes took place. Captain J. Hickey of the _Blossom_ represented Great
+Britain, Mr. J. Keith acted for the North-west Fur Company, while Mr.
+Provost stood for the United States. It seems to have been a very
+good-natured affair throughout. Placards were posted at the capes on both
+sides of the River declaring the change of sovereignty. Fort George was
+quite a powerful structure at that time, consisting of a strong stockade
+of fir logs twelve feet high, enclosing a parallelogram one hundred and
+fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, having within it dwellings, shops,
+store houses, and magazines. On the walls were two eighteen-pound cannon,
+six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six-pound cohorns, and
+seven swivels. The day of transfer must have been a very picturesque day
+among the many such in Astoria's history. We can imagine the soft October
+haze floating over Cape Hancock, and the long, lazy swell of six thousand
+miles of sea, thundering across Point Adams.
+
+One interesting feature of Mr. Provost's presence at Astoria was his
+observation of the bar at the entrance of the River. This had generally
+been represented to the world as something frightful. It is often so
+represented at the present time. Mr. Provost in a letter to Secretary of
+State, John Quincy Adams, says that there is a spacious bay, by no means
+so difficult of ingress as has been represented. He states that there is
+a bar across the mouth of the River, at either extremity of which there
+are sometimes appalling breakers; but that there is a channel of nearly a
+league in width with a depth of twenty-one feet at the lowest tides. He
+thinks, therefore, that with proper buoys the access to vessels of almost
+any tonnage may be rendered secure. This statement in regard to the Bar is
+of much interest as furnishing a basis for comparison with the present
+conditions. The depth at low tide now is about twenty-six feet, the
+increase probably being due to the jetty.
+
+The logic of the restoration of Astoria to the United States, while at the
+same time the British Fur Company was left in practical possession, was
+realised in the Joint Occupation Treaty of 1818. By this singular
+arrangement it was agreed that any country on the north-west coast of
+America that may be claimed by either power shall be open for ten years to
+the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers.
+
+In 1819 another very important step was taken; viz.: the Florida Treaty
+with Spain. By this, Spain retired to the line of 42 degrees, ceding to
+the American Republic all her rights above that line. With her own claims
+joined to those of Spain, the Republic would seem to be able to snap her
+fingers at England. But, with characteristic tenacity, the latter power
+made ready to insist all the more strenuously upon her claims. In 1825
+England and the United States agreed with Russia upon the line of 54
+degrees 40 minutes, as the southern line of Russian claims. With Spain and
+Russia out of it, Oregon was left for England and the United States to
+fight over. The Joint Occupation Treaty was to last ten years, with the
+privilege of renewal. Meanwhile what were the factors in the struggle for
+possession? There was on the side of England the Briarean monopoly of the
+Hudson's Bay Company, supported by a disciplined and intelligent
+government. But the English people were not in it. On the American side
+the Government was strangely indifferent. There were several ambitious
+attempts to control the situation by American trading and fur companies.
+But the essential forces were the American immigrant, the American
+missionary, the Declaration of Independence, and the ox-team. Those were
+the champions of America. They were the Davids against the Goliaths of
+British monopoly. At first thought it seemed that Goliath would have a
+"walk-over." The case seemed hopeless for the Americans.
+
+But to the deeper observer, American triumph was inevitable. It was the
+Age of Democracy. The conception both of popular government and of
+individual ownership of land, with which went the corollary of "equal
+opportunities for all men and special privileges for none," was graven
+deep upon American character. With these things there went, of necessity,
+the disapproval of slavery and the support of free labour. Still further
+there went, by the same logic, the doctrine of unity and continental
+expansion. These various influences have constituted the broad foundation
+on which were reared the towers and battlements of American nationality.
+
+In previous chapters we have outlined the operations of the Hudson's Bay
+Company, the coming of the missionaries, and the immigrations of
+Americans. The policy of the Hudson's Bay Company was to keep the country
+a wilderness, to maintain amicable relations with the Indians, and to
+depend mainly on the fur-trade for the great profits of their enterprise.
+The policy of the American immigrants was to build homes, cities, roads,
+steamboats, mills, develop the country, crowd out the natives, and depend
+on mining, farming, stock-raising, lumbering, for their profits; not
+profits of a monopoly located in a distant money centre, but profits of
+the individual worker on his own land. The difference was world-wide. It
+represented two different conceptions of government and of life itself.
+
+But though the American people had the manifest destiny of expanding to
+the Pacific, the Government was strangely supine. We say "strangely," but
+it was not so strange after all. Congress was dominated by the South in
+the interest of slavery, and by the East in the interest of the tariff.
+Calhoun usually led the South, and he weighed everything in the scales of
+slavery. Webster governed Eastern sentiment largely, and he spoke for New
+England manufacturers. It is true that Clay was at all times a power in
+the councils of the nation, and Clay's constant word was nationalisation
+and expansion. But even Clay was so committed to the tariff that he did
+not always appreciate the possibilities of the "West-most West." The
+Presidents of the period from 1819 to 1846 were from the South or the
+Atlantic seaboard and not usually inclined to regard the far West with
+special interest.
+
+The American people were away ahead of the American government in the
+struggle for possession of Oregon. A few of the utterances of leading
+statesmen of that period as significant of their conception of Oregon,
+may be given here. Benton, who became later the greatest champion of
+Oregon, was so imperfectly informed in 1825 that he spoke thus: "The ridge
+of the Rocky Mountains may be named as a convenient, natural, and
+everlasting boundary. Along this ridge the western limit of the Republic
+should be drawn, and the statue of the fabled god Terminus should be
+erected on its highest peak, never to be thrown down." But Benton
+improved, for later referring to the Columbia, he said, "That way lies the
+Orient." Webster said of Oregon: "What do we want of this vast, worthless
+area, this region of savages and wild beasts, of shifting sands and
+whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs. To what use could we ever
+hope to put these great deserts or these great mountain ranges,
+impenetrable and covered to their base with eternal snow? What can we ever
+hope to do with the western coast, a coast of three thousand miles,
+rock-bound, cheerless, and uninviting, and not a harbour on it? What use
+have we of such a country? Mr. President, I will never vote one cent from
+the public treasury to place the Pacific Coast one inch nearer Boston than
+it is now." And that was "God-like Dan!" Dayton expressed himself thus:
+"God forbid that the time should ever come when a State on the shores of
+the Pacific, with interests and tendencies of trade all looking toward the
+Asiatic nations of the East, shall add its jarring claims to our
+distracted and already overburdened confederacy." The _National
+Intelligencer_ doubtless expressed a common sentiment in the following:
+"Of all the countries upon the face of the earth, Oregon is one of the
+least favoured by nature. It is almost as barren as Sahara and quite as
+unhealthy as the campagna of Italy."
+
+Such an estimate by American statesmen was all right to the Hudson's Bay
+Company. They wished such an estimate and had taken pains to foster it.
+But while the gullible American statesmen were thus accepting just the
+version which their rivals were disseminating, the hard-handed and
+hard-headed, though not hard-hearted frontiersmen of Missouri and Illinois
+and Iowa were packing their ox-teams and starting across the desert for
+that Sahara on the Columbia River. Also one Marcus Whitman, a missionary
+physician of the Walla Walla, was floundering in the snows of the Sierra
+Madre and crossing the Arkansas through broken ice, in order to tell the
+benighted statesmen what the land of the Oregon really was like. The
+American people were busy, and the statesmen looked askance. And so, a few
+here and a few there, by trail or ship, adventurers, missionaries,
+sailors, trappers, there was formed a gathering in the Willamette of the
+advance guard of American home-builders. They began to call out of the
+wilderness to Uncle Sam.
+
+As a result of the coming of the missionaries and of the small
+immigrations of the thirties and early forties, together with the
+settlement in the Willamette Valley of various French-Canadian employees
+of the Hudson's Bay Company, there was enough of a population to demand
+some sort of organised society.
+
+W. H. Gray made a summary of population in 1840 to consist of two hundred
+persons, of whom a hundred and thirty-seven were American and sixty-three
+Canadian. Up to 1839 the only law was the rules of the Hudson's Bay
+Company. In that year the Methodist missionaries suggested that two
+persons be named as magistrates to administer justice according to the
+ordinary rules of American law. This was the first move looking to
+American political organisation. In 1839 and 1840 memorials were presented
+to the Senate by Senator Linn of Missouri at the request of American
+settlers praying for the attention of Congress to their needs. But, not
+content with lifting their voices to the home land, they proceeded to
+organise for themselves.
+
+At that time, Champoeg, a few miles above the falls of the Willamette and
+located pleasantly on the west bank of that river, was the chief
+settlement. There, on the seventh of February, 1841, a gathering of the
+settlers was held "for the purpose of consulting upon steps necessary to
+be taken for the formation of laws, and the election of officers to
+execute them." Jason Lee, the Methodist missionary, was chairman of the
+meeting, and he outlined what he deemed the needed method of establishing
+a reign of law and order. The meeting proved rather a conference than an
+organisation and the people dispersed to meet again at the call of the
+chairman.
+
+A week later an event occurred which brought most forcibly to the minds of
+the settlers the need of better organisation. This was the death of Ewing
+Young, one of the most prominent men of the little community. He left
+considerable property, with no known heirs and no one to act as
+administrator. It became clear that some legal status must be established
+for the settlement. Another meeting was held, in which it was determined
+that a government be instituted, having the officers usual in an American
+locality. The work of framing a constitution was entrusted to a committee,
+in which the five different elements, the Methodist missionaries, the
+Catholics, the French Canadians, the independent American settlers, and
+the English, had representation. The committee was instructed to confer
+with Commodore Wilkes of the American Exploring Squadron, just at that
+time in the River, and Dr. McLoughlin, the Hudson's Bay magnate. Wilkes
+advised the settlers to wait for added strength and for the United States
+Government to throw its mantle over them. The committee decided that his
+advice was sound and indefinitely adjourned. Constitution building rested
+for a time along the shores of the Willamette.
+
+In 1841 and 1842, two hundred and twenty Americans reached Oregon,
+doubling the population.
+
+The Americans were ill at ease without a government and kept agitating the
+question of another meeting. But the English and the Catholic influences
+opposed this. Some diplomacy was needed. The irrepressible Yankees were
+equal to it. They determined to draw the settlers together under the
+announcement of a meeting for the purpose of discussing the means of
+protecting themselves against the ravages of the numerous wild beasts of
+the valley. W. H. Gray was the leading spirit in this enterprise. In a
+most picturesque and valuable account of it, John Minto has developed the
+thought that the founding of the Oregon State bore a striking resemblance
+to that stage in the Roman state, subsequently celebrated in the festival
+of Lupercalia, wherein the first organisation was for defence against the
+wild beasts. So the Willamette witnessed again the gathering of the
+clans, Americans, English, French, half-breeds, Catholics, Protestants,
+Independents, all coming together to protect themselves against the bears,
+cougars, and wolves. The meetings were usually known thereafter as the
+"wolf meetings."
+
+James O'Neil was made chairman of this historic gathering. With the
+astuteness characteristic of American politicians, a previous
+understanding had been made between Mr. O'Neil and the little coterie of
+which Mr. Gray was the manager, that everything should be shaped to the
+ultimate end of raising the question of a government. As soon, therefore,
+as the ostensible aim of the meeting had been attained, W. H. Gray arose
+and broached the all-important issue. After declaring that no one could
+question the wisdom and rightfulness of the measures looking to protecting
+their herds from wild beasts, he continued:
+
+    How is it, fellow-citizens, with you and me, and our wives and
+    children? Have we any organisation on which we can rely for mutual
+    protection? Is there any power in the country sufficient to protect us
+    and all that we hold dear, from the worse than wild beasts that
+    threaten and occasionally destroy our cattle? We have mutually and
+    unitedly agreed to defend and protect our cattle and domestic animals;
+    now, therefore, fellow-citizens, I submit and move the adoption of the
+    two following resolutions, that we may have protection for our lives
+    and persons, as well as our cattle and herds: _Resolved_ that a
+    committee be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of
+    taking measures for the civil and military protection of this colony;
+    _Resolved_ that this committee consist of twelve persons.
+
+There spoke the true voice of the American state-builder, the voice of the
+Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The resolutions were
+passed and the committee of twelve appointed, mainly Americans. The
+committee met at the Falls of the Willamette, which by that time was
+becoming known as Oregon City. Unable to arrive at a definite decision,
+the committee issued a call for a general meeting at Champoeg on May 2d.
+
+Pending the meeting, there was a general policy of opposition developed
+among the French Canadians in the interest of the Hudson's Bay Company and
+England. This opposition threatened the overthrow of the entire plan. It
+was, however, checkmated in an interesting fashion. George W. Le Breton
+was one of the leading settlers and occupied a peculiar position. He was
+of French origin, from Baltimore to Oregon, and had been a Catholic. His
+existing affiliations were with the Americans. He was keen, facile, and
+well educated. He discovered that the Canadians had been drilled to vote
+"No" on all questions, irrespective of the bearing which such a vote might
+have on the leading issue. Le Breton accordingly proposed that measures be
+introduced upon which the Canadians ought to vote "Yes." These tactics
+were carried out. The Canadians were confused thereby. Le Breton watched
+developments carefully and, becoming satisfied that he could command a
+majority, rose and exclaimed, "We can risk it, let us divide and count!"
+Gray shouted, "I second the motion!" Jo Meek, famous as one of the
+Mountain Men, stepped out of the crowd and said, "Who is for a divide? All
+in favour of an organisation, follow me!" The Americans speedily gathered
+behind the tall form of the erstwhile trapper. A count followed. It was a
+close vote. Fifty-two voted for, and fifty against. The Americans would
+have been outvoted had it not been that Le Breton, with two French
+Canadians, Francois Matthieu and Etienne Lucier, voted with them. The
+defeated Canadians withdrew, and the Indians, who lined the banks of the
+River to discover what strange proceedings the white men were engaged in,
+perceived from the loud shouts of triumph that the "Bostons" had won.
+Though the victory was gained by so scanty a margin, it was gained, and it
+was decisive. It was one of the most interesting events in the history of
+Oregon or the United States, for it illustrates most vividly the inborn
+capacity of the American for self-government.
+
+The new government went at once into effect. The constitution formulated
+by the committee and adopted by the meeting at Champoeg provided that the
+people of Oregon should adopt laws and regulations until the United States
+extended its jurisdiction over them. Freedom of worship, habeas corpus,
+trial by jury, proportionate representation, and the usual civil rights of
+Americans were guaranteed. Education should be encouraged, lands and
+property should not be taken from Indians without their consent. Slavery
+or involuntary servitude should not exist.
+
+The officers of government consisted of a legislative body of nine
+persons, an executive body of three, and a judiciary of a supreme judge
+and two justices of the peace, with a probate court and its justices, and
+a recorder and treasurer. Every white man of twenty-one years or more
+could vote. The laws of Iowa were designated to be followed in common
+practice. Marriage was allowed to males at sixteen and females at
+fourteen. One of the most important provisions was the land law. This
+permitted any individual to claim a mile square, provided it be not on a
+town site or water-power, and that any mission claims already made be not
+affected, up to the limit of six miles square. This land law was framed
+upon the general conception of the proposed Linn bill already brought
+before Congress. The land law allowed land to be taken in any form, but
+since there was no existing survey, each man had to make his own survey.
+
+The first elected executive committee consisted of David Hill, Alanson
+Beers, and Joseph Gale. Within a year an amendment was made to the
+constitution providing for a governor. George Abernethy, a former member
+of the Methodist mission, was chosen to fill the place.
+
+Outer things were pretty crude in the little colony on the Willamette,
+though brains and energy were there in abundance. J. Quinn Thornton
+expressed himself as follows on the "Oregon State House," which he says
+was in several respects different from that in which laws are made at
+Washington City:
+
+    The Oregon State House was built with posts set upright, one end set
+    in the ground, grooved on two sides, and filled in with poles and
+    split timber, such as would be suitable for fence rails, with plates
+    and poles across the top. Rafters and horizontal poles, instead of
+    iron ribs, held the cedar bark which was used instead of thick copper
+    for roofing. It was twenty by forty feet and therefore did not cover
+    three acres and a half. At one end some puncheons were put up for a
+    platform for the president; some poles and slabs were placed around
+    for seats; three planks, about a foot wide and twelve feet long,
+    placed upon a sort of stake platform for a table, were all that was
+    believed necessary for the use of the legislative committee and the
+    clerks.
+
+There are several facts in connection with the inauguration of this
+Provisional Government of Oregon which are almost equal to itself in
+interest. One of these is that Peter H. Burnett, a lawyer and the most
+notable member of the emigration of 1843, rendered the opinion that, by
+the spirit of American institutions, the Provisional Government might be
+regarded as possessing valid authority. Going in a few years to
+California, Mr. Burnett incorporated the same principles into the
+government of that State and became its first governor.
+
+Another most significant fact was the attitude of the Hudson's Bay
+Company. That great organisation was of course opposed to American
+ownership and to the Provisional Government. At first, the management
+under Sir James Douglas (Dr. McLoughlin had been superseded by Douglas
+because of his supposed leaning toward the Americans) affected to ignore
+the government framed at Champoeg, declaring loftily that the company
+could protect itself. Dr. McLoughlin, in his very interesting account of
+this, says that the Americans adopted in 1845 a provision in the
+constitution that no one should be called to do any act contrary to his
+allegiance. This provision struck him as designed to enable British
+subjects to join the organisation. Dr. McLoughlin was so pleased with the
+wise and liberal spirit which this evinced that he prevailed on Douglas to
+join the Provisional Government. The family was now complete. The American
+farmers and immigrants and missionaries had triumphed over the autocratic
+government of the great fur company. The American idea--government of the
+people, by the people, and for the people--was vindicated. The local
+battle was won for the Yankee.
+
+Before leaving this great epoch of the history of the River, it will
+interest the reader to know that Dr. McLoughlin, so conspicuous in the
+story thus far, removed to Oregon City, and became an avowed American
+citizen, living on the claim on which he filed at the Falls. Much trouble
+subsequently arose between him and the Methodist mission people
+represented by Rev. A. F. Waller. Harder yet, Congress was led by Delegate
+Thurston of Oregon, to exclude him from the benefit of the Donation Land
+Law. The final result was that the great-hearted ex-king of the Columbia
+lost the most of his claim on the ground that he was an alien at the time
+of taking it. The Hudson's Bay Company directors chose to disapprove his
+acts in bestowing provisions upon the weary and hungry and ragged American
+immigrants, and they charged him personally with the cost. This, in
+addition to the loss of his claim, rendered him almost penniless and sadly
+embittered his old age. He said that he supposed he was becoming an
+American, but found that he was neither American nor British, but was
+without a country. It is pleasant to be able to record the fact that the
+Oregon Legislature restored his land in so far as the State controlled it,
+but this was only just before his death.
+
+Of all the brave and big-souled men who bore their part in redeeming
+Oregon and the Columbia from the wilderness, John McLoughlin has stood at
+the head of the column, side by side with Marcus Whitman, the American
+physician and missionary. Though identified at first with rival interests
+and conflicting aims, McLoughlin and Whitman had many traits in common,
+and the story of their lives and life-work in Oregon should be written in
+one chapter. No one that ever knew or sympathised with Oregon history has
+failed to give his meed of praise to both Whitman and McLoughlin. No one
+ever stood on the hill at Waiilatpu and viewed the mission home of Whitman
+in the fertile vale of the Walla Walla, the scene of martyrdom and
+anguish, without joining it in mind with the expanse of the Columbia at
+Vancouver and recalling "Old Whitehead," and his large-minded and humane
+lordship for twenty years of the land of the Oregon. Nor can one withhold
+the thrill of indignation at the cold-blooded commercialism of the
+Hudson's Bay Company, and at the petty ingratitude of some Americans,
+which together brought darkness to the old hero's last days.
+
+But though American Democracy was winning a bloodless triumph on the
+Columbia, it seemed by no means certain that American diplomacy would win
+on the Potomac. Webster, as Secretary of State under Harrison and during
+part of Tyler's administration, represented the conservative councils of
+the New England seaboard, and was inclined to yield to England in respect
+to the Oregon boundary.
+
+Senator Linn of Missouri was the most steadfast friend of American
+occupancy. He was the one to frame land bills to encourage American
+immigration, and in his hands the memorials of the settlers on the
+Columbia had been placed. But in 1843, he died, with his work undone.
+Benton, his colleague, had meanwhile become fully as pronounced, and he
+pursued the same policy with uncompromising and volcanic energy.
+
+But a curious and anomalistic alignment of interests and parties now
+arose. The Oregon question became entangled with those of Texas and
+slavery. Calhoun became Tyler's Secretary of State upon Webster's
+resignation. While the Democrats in general were more inclined to western
+expansion than the Whigs, yet the slaveholders of the South were much more
+interested in Texas than in Oregon. The Provisional Government of Oregon
+had prohibited slavery. Calhoun was ready to fight Mexico for the
+possession of Texas, but he did not want to fight England for possession
+of Oregon. Nevertheless, he did not dare to offend the West by a square
+back-down on Oregon. He therefore adopted a policy of "masterly
+inactivity." He believed that if war arose with England, we would lose
+"every inch of Oregon," for England could hurry a fleet to the Columbia
+River from China in six weeks, whereas American ships would have to double
+Cape Horn, and an American army would have to cross the continent under
+every disadvantage of transportation. But time, he believed, would win all
+for the Americans.
+
+In this conception, Von Holst thinks Calhoun was wise. Roosevelt in his
+_Life of Benton_, thinks that the war, if there had been war, would have
+been fought out in Canada, and that, while Calhoun was not wrong in
+desiring delay, he should never have abated one jot in demanding all of
+Oregon up to 54 degrees 40 minutes.
+
+The Democratic platform on which Polk was elected President, demanded "54
+degrees 40 minutes," and, in popular clamour, the words, "or fight," were
+added. Oregon, Texas, and slavery were practically the issues on which
+Polk was elected. His inaugural address declared our title to Oregon to be
+"clear and unquestionable." Great excitement ensued, for if Congress stood
+by the President, war was almost inevitable, unless England yielded. To
+the surprise of the world, however, James Buchanan, the yielding, not to
+say shifty, Secretary of State under the new administration, now announced
+the willingness of our Government to compromise on the line of 49 degrees.
+But here another complication ensued. Pakenham, the British envoy,
+declined, in almost insulting terms, to accept 49 degrees. Polk thereupon
+withdrew the proposition and in his next message stated that "no
+compromise which the United States ought to accept can be effected." At
+the same time he advised the cancellation of the Joint Occupation Treaty.
+It seemed now that the conflict between the nations for the possession of
+the River would surely eventuate in war. Senator Cass of Michigan fanned
+the flame by a speech declaring that "War is almost upon us." The
+committees on Foreign Relations in both House and Senate proposed
+resolutions to notify England at once of the close of the Joint Occupation
+Treaty. Excitement rose to fierce heat, and the standing of marine risks
+and commercial ventures at once showed the popular sentiment. "Fifty-four,
+forty, or fight!" was the spirit of Congress.
+
+But now Calhoun found himself betwixt the devil and the deep sea. He did
+not really wish to get all of Oregon, for fear of the effect on slavery.
+Yet he dared not throw cold water on the tremendous spirits of patriotism
+and ambition in the West demanding Oregon. A compromise was the only
+recourse. Powerful men of the "Moderates" in both England and the United
+States brought their influence to bear. Calhoun caused Lord Aberdeen,
+Foreign Secretary of England, to understand that the President would again
+take up the line of 49 degrees. Lord Aberdeen directed Pakenham to revive
+the negotiations which had been somewhat rudely broken off. The Senate
+reconsidered the situation more calmly and opened the way to a new treaty.
+This was consummated and signed by President Polk on June 15, 1846, and
+confirmed by the Senate on June 19th. The line of 49 degrees was accepted.
+The Great River was divided by that line nearly equally between the two
+nations, there being about seven hundred and fifty miles in American
+territory and six hundred and fifty in British.
+
+The decision of the ownership of the River was one of the most momentous
+in American history. If we had not got Oregon, we probably would not have
+got California. And without the Pacific Coast, the history of the Great
+Republic would be essentially different, and the history of the world
+would be essentially different.
+
+The Oregon Question owed much of its interest to its very complicated
+nature. It was at first a question between the governments of five
+different nations, England, France, Russia, Spain, and the United States.
+In time it became a question between England and the United States. Then
+it was a question between Oregon immigrants and British Fur Company. Then
+it became a question between slavery and freedom. This was still further
+complicated by the fact that it was also a question between West, East,
+and South. Different factions of different parties still further
+complicated it. It was in truth a manifold question, and in its final
+solution we read some of the most vital of American traits and movements.
+Out of it all the settlers of the River may justly be said to have emerged
+with highest credit. The American home-builder, the great Democracy of the
+West, the inborn impulse to expand and to nationalise,--these were the
+essential factors in the triumph. The settlers on the Willamette, the
+constitution-makers of Champoeg, the immigrants and the missionaries, had
+already gained the day before diplomacy took it up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Times of Tomahawk and Fire-Brand
+
+    Extent of Indian Troubles in the Region of the Columbia--Destruction
+    of the _Tonquin_--Conflicting Policies of the British and the
+    Americans in Regard to the Fur-trade--Advances in Settlement by
+    Americans, and Indian Opposition--The Whitman Mission and its
+    Relations to the Indians, and to the Hudson's Bay Company--The
+    Pestilence of 1847--The Whitman Massacre--Mr. Osborne's
+    Reminiscences--Saving of the Lapwai and Tshimakain Missions--The
+    Cayuse War--Great War of 1855-56--Kamiakin and Peupeumoxmox--Governor
+    I. I. Stevens of Washington Territory and his Efforts to Make
+    Treaties--The Walla Walla Council and the Division among the
+    Indians--Pearson and his Ride--Outburst of Hostilities and the
+    Destruction that Followed--Conflict between the Regulars and the
+    Volunteers--Battles of Walla Walla, Cascades, and Grande Ronde--Second
+    Walla Walla Council--An Unsatisfactory Peace--Continued Incoming of
+    Prospectors and Land-seekers--Third Indian War--Disastrous Steptoe
+    Campaign--Garnett's Campaign in the Yakima--Wright's Campaign to
+    Spokane and Overthrow of Indian Power--Peace Proclaimed and the
+    Country Thrown Open to Settlement--Nez Perce War of
+    1877--Hallakallakeen, or Joseph, the Indian Warchief--His Melancholy
+    Fate--The Bannock War.
+
+
+Columbia River history has had its full share of Indian wars. To narrate
+these in full would transcend the limits of this chapter. Even during the
+era of discovery desperate affrays with the natives were a common
+experience of explorers. Captain Gray of the _Columbia_ lost a boat's crew
+of seamen at Tillamook. The ship _Boston_ was seized in 1803 by the wily
+old chief Maquinna at Nootka.
+
+In 1812 the _Tonquin_, the first vessel of the Pacific Fur Company, in
+command of Captain Thorn, was captured at some point to the north of the
+Columbia River, variously known as Eyuck Whoola on Newcetu Bay, or Newity
+Bay, or Newcetee. She was, as a result of the capture, blown up by the
+explosion of her own powder magazine. Gabriel Franchere and Alexander
+Ross, of the Astoria party, are the original authorities for this dramatic
+story. Irving has made the event a leading feature of his charming
+_Astoria_. H. H. Bancroft has discussed it at length in his history of the
+Pacific Coast. In recent years Major H. M. Chittenden in his valuable
+book, _History of the American Fur Trade_, presents new testimony of much
+interest. But whatever discrepencies existed in the records, the general
+truth remains that the ship and all her crew, with the exception of one
+Indian, disappeared, and great was the loss to the traders at Astoria as a
+result.
+
+For more than three decades after the destruction of the _Tonquin_ there
+were no serious Indian conflicts. The Hudson's Bay Company carried out
+consistently the general policy of harmony with the natives. Most of the
+employees were of French Canadian origin, and, with their general
+sociability, they were more popular with the Indians than the Americans
+usually have been. But with the incoming of American missionaries,
+trappers, explorers, and immigrants, the situation changed. Conflicts of
+interests, ambitions, and national aims led both Americans and British to
+be somewhat more ready to encourage the hostile and suspicious disposition
+of the natives. Chiefly, however, the cause of the changing attitude of
+the natives must be attributed to the perception by the more intelligent
+of the fact that the actual occupation of the country by white farmers,
+home builders, and land owners, meant their own destruction. Though this
+truth dawned on them only vaguely and gradually, they had begun to be
+somewhat familiar with it by the decade of the thirties.
+
+The founding of American missions during that decade, as narrated earlier,
+at Chemeketa, Walla Walla, Lapwai, and Tshimakain, and, during the years
+following, the obvious intent of the Americans to draw immigration to the
+country, prepared the way for the first and perhaps the most ferocious,
+though by no means the greatest, of the four principal wars which we plan
+to consider. This first one was the war connected with the Whitman
+massacre.
+
+We have already described the founding of the Whitman Mission at
+Waiilatpu, six miles from the present site of Walla Walla, and twenty-six
+miles from the Hudson's Bay fort on the Columbia, known as Fort Walla
+Walla. We have also told of Whitman's journey across the continent in the
+mid-winter of 1842-43, of his efforts to secure the attention of Congress
+and of the Executive to the importance of the Oregon country, and of his
+return to Walla Walla in 1843, with the first large immigration of
+American settlers.
+
+After the incoming of this immigration, it became more than ever clear to
+the more intelligent Indians that this movement of settlers portended a
+change in their whole condition. Their wild life could not co-exist with
+farming, houses, and the fixed and narrowed limits of the white man's
+life. Moreover, since they saw the antagonism between the Americans and
+the Hudson's Bay Company, and since the latter was obviously more
+favourable to perpetuating the life of the wilderness, the natives were
+naturally drawn into sympathy with the latter. Still further, since the
+Americans were Protestants and naturally affiliated with the Whitman
+Mission and its associated missions, and since the Hudson's Bay people
+were mainly Catholics and interested in maintaining the missionary methods
+adapted to the regime of the fur-traders, there became injected into the
+situation the dangerous element of religious jealousy.
+
+Dr. Whitman perceived that he was standing on the edge of a powder
+magazine, and, during the summer of 1847, he arranged to acquire the
+mission property of the Methodists at The Dalles, a hundred and sixty
+miles down the River, intending to remove thither in the spring. But
+meanwhile, the explosives being all ready, the spark was prepared for
+igniting them.
+
+During the summer of 1847 measles became epidemic among the Indians. Their
+method of treating any disease of which fever was a part was to enter a
+pit into which hot rocks had been thrown, then casting water on the rocks,
+to create a dense vapour, in which, stripped of clothing, they would
+remain until thoroughly steamed. Thence issuing, stark naked and dripping
+with perspiration, they would plunge into an icy cold stream. Death was
+the almost inevitable result in case of measles. Whitman, who was, it
+should be remembered, a physician, not a clergyman, was skilful and
+devoted in his attentions, yet many died. Now just at that time a
+renegade half-breed known as Jo Lewis seems to have become possessed with
+the diabolical mania of massacre. He made the Indians think that Whitman
+was poisoning them. Istickus or Sticcus, a Umatilla Indian and a warm
+friend of Whitman, had formed some impression of the plot and suggested
+the danger. Whitman's intrepid spirit laughed at this, but Mrs. Whitman,
+though equally intrepid, seems to have felt some premonition of the swift
+coming doom, for the mission children found her in tears for the first
+time since the death of her beloved little girl eight years before. The
+Doctor tried to soothe her by declaring that he would arrange to go down
+the River at once. But on that very day, November 28, 1847, the
+picturesque little hill rising a hundred feet above the mission ground,
+now surmounted by the granite shaft of the Whitman monument, was observed
+to be black with Indians. It was evident from various sinister aspects
+that something was impending.
+
+On the next day, November 29th, at about one o'clock, while Dr. Whitman
+sat reading, a number of Indians entered the room. Having gained his
+attention by the usual request for medicines, one of them, afterwards said
+by some to have been Tamahas, and by others have been Tamsaky, rushed
+suddenly upon the Doctor and struck his head with a tomahawk. Another
+wretch named Telaukait, to whom the Doctor had been the kindest friend,
+then cut and hacked the noble face of the philanthropist. The work of
+murder thus inaugurated went on with savage energy. The men about the
+mission were speedily slain, with the exception of a few who were in
+remote places and managed by special fortune to elude observation. Mrs.
+Whitman, bravely coming forward to succour her dying husband, was shot in
+the breast and sank to the floor. She did not die at once, and it is said
+by some of the survivors, then children, that she lingered some time,
+being heard to murmur most tender prayers for her parents and children.
+Mrs. Whitman was the only woman killed. The other women and girls were
+cruelly outraged and held in captivity for several days.
+
+William McBean was at that time in charge of the fort at Walla Walla, and
+with a strange disregard of humane feelings, he shut the door of the fort
+in the face of one of the escaped Americans, and a little later served the
+Osborne family in the same manner. McBean sent a courier down the River to
+convey the tidings to Vancouver, but this courier did not even stop at The
+Dalles to warn the people, though they were not attacked. James Douglas
+was then chief factor at Vancouver, as successor to Dr. McLoughlin. As
+soon as he was apprised of the massacre, he sent Peter Skeen Ogden with a
+force to rescue the survivors. Ogden acted with promptness and efficiency,
+and by the use of several hundred dollars' worth of commodities ransomed
+forty-seven women and children. Thirteen persons had been murdered.
+
+One of the most distressing experiences was that of the Osborne family. Of
+this Mr. Osborne says:
+
+    As the guns fired and the yells commenced I leaned my head upon the
+    bed and committed myself and family to my Maker. My wife removed the
+    loose floor. I dropped under the floor with my sick family in their
+    night clothes, taking only two woollen sheets, a piece of bread, and
+    some cold mush, and pulled the floor over us. In five minutes the room
+    was full of Indians, but they did not discover us. The roar of guns,
+    the yells of the savages, and the crash of clubs and knives and the
+    groans of the dying continued till dark. We distinctly heard the dying
+    groans of Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Rogers, and Francis, till they died away
+    one after the other. We heard the last words of Mr. Rogers in a slow
+    voice calling "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." Soon after this I
+    removed the floor and we went out. We saw the white face of Francis by
+    the door. It was warm as we laid our hand upon it, but he was dead. I
+    carried my two youngest children, who were sick, and my wife held on
+    to my clothes in her great weakness. We had all been sick with
+    measles. Two infants had died. She had not left her bed in six weeks
+    till that day, when she stood up a few minutes. The naked, painted
+    Indians were dancing the scalp dance around a large fire at a little
+    distance. There seemed no hope for us and we knew not which way to go,
+    but bent our steps toward Fort Walla Walla. A dense cold fog shut out
+    every star and the darkness was complete. We could see no trail and
+    not even the hand before the face. We had to feel out the trail with
+    our feet. My wife almost fainted but staggered along. Mill Creek,
+    which we had to wade, was high with late rains and came up to the
+    waist. My wife in her great weakness came nigh washing down, but held
+    to my clothes. I braced myself with a stick, holding a child in one
+    arm. I had to cross five times for the children. The water was icy
+    cold and the air freezing some. Staggering along about two miles, Mrs.
+    Osborne fainted and could go no farther, and we hid ourselves in the
+    brush of the Walla Walla River, not far below Tamsukey's (a chief)
+    lodges, who was very active at the commencement of the butchery. We
+    were thoroughly wet, and the cold fog like snow was about us. The cold
+    mud was partially frozen as we crawled, feeling our way, into the dark
+    brush. We could see nothing, the darkness was so extreme. I spread one
+    wet sheet down on the frozen ground; wife and children crouched upon
+    it. I covered the other over them. I thought they must soon perish as
+    they were shaking and their teeth rattling with cold. I kneeled down
+    and commended us to my Maker. The day finally dawned and we could see
+    the Indians riding furiously up and down the trail. Sometimes they
+    would come close to the brush and our blood would warm and the shaking
+    would stop from fear for a moment. The day seemed a week. Expected
+    every moment my wife would breathe her last. Tuesday night, felt our
+    way to the trail and staggered along to Sutucksnina (Dog Creek), which
+    we waded as we did the other creek, and kept on about two miles when
+    my wife fainted and could go no farther. Crawled into the brush and
+    frozen mud to shake and suffer on from hunger and cold, and without
+    sleep. The children, too, wet and cold, called incessantly for food,
+    but the shock of groans and yells at first so frightened them that
+    they did not speak loud. Wednesday night my wife was too weak to
+    stand. I took our second child and started for Walla Walla; had to
+    wade the Touchet; stopped frequently in the brush from weakness; had
+    not recovered from measles. Heard a horseman pass and repass as I lay
+    concealed in the willows. Have since learned that it was Mr. Spalding.
+    Reached Fort Walla Walla after daylight; begged Mr. McBean for horses
+    to get my family, for food, for blankets, and clothing to take to
+    them, and to take care of my child till I could bring my family in,
+    should I live to find them alive. Mr. McBean told me I could not bring
+    my family to his fort.
+
+    Mr. Hall came in on Monday night, but he could not have an American in
+    his fort, and he had put him over the Columbia River; that he could
+    not let me have horses or anything for my wife and children, and I
+    must go to Umatilla. I insisted on bringing my family to the fort, but
+    he refused; said he would not let us in. I next begged the priests to
+    show pity, as my wife and children must perish and the Indians
+    undoubtedly would kill me, with no success. I then begged to leave my
+    child who was not safe in the fort, but they refused.
+
+    There were many priests in the fort. Mr. McBean gave me breakfast, but
+    I saved most of it for my family. Providentially Mr. Stanley, an
+    artist, came in from Colville, narrowly escaped the Cayuse Indians by
+    telling them he was "Alain" H. B. He let me have his two horses, some
+    food he had left from Rev. Eells and Walker's mission; also a cap, a
+    pair of socks, a shirt, and handkerchief, and Mr. McBean furnished an
+    Indian who proved most faithful, and Thursday night we started back,
+    taking my child, but with a sad heart that I could not find mercy at
+    the hands of the priests of God. The Indian guided me in the thick
+    darkness to where I supposed I had left my dear wife and children. We
+    could see nothing and dared not call aloud. Daylight came and I was
+    exposed to Indians, but we continued to search till I was about to
+    give up in despair when the Indian discovered one of the twigs I had
+    broken as a guide in coming out to the trail. Following these he soon
+    found my wife and children still alive. I distributed what little food
+    and clothing I had, and we started for the Umatilla, the guide leading
+    the way to a ford.
+
+    Mr. McBean came and asked who was there. I replied. He said he could
+    not let us in; we must go to Umatilla or he would put us over the
+    river, as he had Mr. Hall. My wife replied she would die at the gate
+    but she would not leave. He finally opened and took us into a secret
+    room and sent an allowance of food for us every day. Next day I asked
+    him for blankets for my sick wife to lie on. He had nothing. Next day
+    I urged again. He had nothing to give, but would sell a blanket out of
+    the store. I told him I had lost everything, and had nothing to pay;
+    but if I should live to get to the Willamette I would pay. He
+    consented. But the hip-bones of my dear wife wore through the skin on
+    the hard floor. Stickus, the chief, came in one day and took the cap
+    from his head and gave it to me, and a handkerchief to my child.
+
+The Whitman massacre was a prelude to the Cayuse War. It should be
+remembered that, the year before the massacre, the Oregon country had, by
+treaty with Great Britain, become the property of the United States. No
+regular government had yet been inaugurated, but the Provisional
+Government already instituted by the Americans met on December 9th and
+provided for sending fourteen companies of volunteers to the Walla Walla.
+These were immigrants who had come to seek homes and their section of
+land, and it was a great sacrifice for them to leave their families and
+start in mid-winter for the upper Columbia. But they bravely and
+cheerfully obeyed the call of duty and set forth, furnishing mainly their
+own equipment, without a thought of pecuniary gain or even reimbursement.
+Cornelius Gilliam, an immigrant of 1845 from Missouri, was chosen colonel
+of the regiment. He was a man of great energy and courage, and though not
+a professional soldier,--none of them were,--had the frontier American's
+capacity for warfare. The command pushed rapidly forward, their way being
+disputed at various points. At Sand Hollows the Indians, led by Five Crows
+and War Eagle, made an especially tenacious attempt to prevent the
+crossing of the Umatilla River. Five Crows claimed to have wizard powers
+by which he could stop all bullets, and War Eagle declared that he could
+swallow all balls fired at him. But at the first onset the wizard was so
+badly wounded that he had to retire and "Swallow Ball" was killed. Tom
+McKay had levelled his rifle and said, "Let him swallow this."
+
+[Illustration: Grave of Marcus Whitman and his Associate Martyrs at
+Waiilatpu. Photo. by W. D. Chapman.]
+
+The way was now clear to Waiilatpu, which the command reached on March
+4th. The mangled remains of the victims of the massacre had been hastily
+interred by the Ogden party, but coyotes had partially exhumed them. The
+remains were brought together by the volunteers and reverently, though
+rudely, buried at a point near the mission, a place where a marble crypt
+now encloses the commingled bones of the martyrs. A lock of long, fair
+hair was found near the ruined mission ground which was thought surely to
+be from the head of Mrs. Whitman. It was preserved by one of the
+volunteers and is now one of the precious relics in the historical museum
+of Whitman College.
+
+The Cayuse War dragged along in a desultory fashion for nearly three
+years. The refusal of the Nez Perces and Spokanes and the indifference of
+the Yakimas to join the Cayuses made their cause hopeless, though there
+were several fierce fights with them and much severe campaigning. In 1850
+a band of friendly Umatilla Indians undertook to capture the chief band of
+the Cayuses under Tamsaky, which had taken a strong position about the
+head waters of the John Day River. After a savage battle Tamsaky was
+killed and most of the warriors captured. Of these, five, charged with the
+leading part in the Whitman massacre, were hanged at Oregon City on June
+3, 1850. It remains a question to this day, however, whether the victims
+of the gallows were really the guilty ones. The Cayuse Indians were quite
+firm in their assertion that Tamahas, who, by one version, struck Dr.
+Whitman the first blow, was the only one of the five concerned in the
+murder.
+
+Thus ended the first principal war in the Columbia Basin. It was quickly
+followed by another, which was so extensive that it may be well called
+universal. This was the War of 1855-56. This was the greatest Indian war
+in the entire history of the Columbia River.
+
+As we have seen, the American home-builders had outmatched the English
+fur-traders in the struggle for possession. On the 3d of March, 1853,
+Washington Territory, embracing the present States of Washington and
+Idaho, with parts of Wyoming and Montana, was created by Act of Congress,
+and Isaac I. Stevens was appointed governor. This remarkable man entered
+with tremendous energy upon his task of organising the chaos of his great
+domain. The Indian problem was obviously the most dangerous and pressing
+one. There were at that time two remarkable chiefs of the mid-Columbia
+region, natural successors of Philip, Pontiac, Black Hawk, and Tecumseh,
+possessing those Indian traits of mingled nobleness and treachery which
+have made the best specimens of the race such interesting objects of
+study. These Indians were Kamiakin of the Yakimas, and Peupeumoxmox of the
+Walla Wallas.
+
+[Illustration: Cayuse Babies 1. (Copyright by Lee Moorehouse, 1898.)]
+
+[Illustration: Cayuse Babies 2. (Copyright by Lee Moorehouse, 1898.)]
+
+In 1855 the great war broke out almost simultaneously at different points.
+There were six widely scattered regions especially concerned. Four of
+these, the Cascades, the Yakima Valley, the Walla Walla, and the Grande
+Ronde, were on or adjacent to the River. The others were the Rogue River
+region and Puget Sound. So wide was the area of this war that intelligent
+co-operation among the Indians proved impracticable. This, in fact, was
+the thing that saved the whites. For there were probably not less than
+four thousand Indians on the war-path, and if they had co-operated, the
+smaller settlements, possibly all in the country except those in the
+Willamette Valley, might have been annihilated.
+
+The first efforts of Governor Stevens were to secure treaties with the
+Indians. Having negotiated several treaties in 1854 with the Puget Sound
+Indians, the governor passed over the Cascade Mountains to Walla Walla in
+May, 1855. There during the latter part of May and first part of June, he
+held a great council with representatives of seventeen tribes. Lieutenant
+Kip, U. S. A., has preserved a vivid account of this great gathering, one
+of the most important ever held in the annals of Indian history. According
+to Lieutenant Kip, there were but about fifty men in the escort of the
+daring governor, and if he had been a man sensible to fear he might well
+have been startled when there came an army of twenty-five hundred Nez
+Perces under Halhaltlossot, known as Lawyer by the whites. Two days later
+three hundred Cayuses, those worst of the Columbia River Indians, surly
+and scowling, led by Five Crows and Young Chief, made their appearance.
+Two days later a force of two thousand Yakimas, Umatillas, and Walla
+Wallas came in sight under Kamiakin and Peupeumoxmox. The council was soon
+organised. Governor Stevens and General Palmer, the latter the Indian
+Agent for Oregon, set forth their plan of reservations, all their speeches
+being translated and retranslated until they had filtered down among the
+general mass of the Indians. Then there must be a great "wawa," or
+discussion by the Indians. It soon became apparent that there were two
+bitterly contesting parties. One was a large faction of Nez Perces led by
+Lawyer, who favoured the whites. The other faction of the Nez Perces, with
+all the remaining tribes, were set against any treaty. With remarkable
+skill and patience, Governor Stevens, with the powerful assistance of
+Lawyer, had brought the Indians to a point of general agreement to the
+creation of a system of reservations. But suddenly there was a commotion.
+Into the midst of the council there burst the old chief Looking Glass
+(Apashwahayikt), second only to Lawyer in influence among the Nez Perces.
+He had made a desperate ride of three hundred miles in seven days,
+following a buffalo hunt and a raid against the Blackfeet, and as he now
+burst into the midst, there dangled from his belt the scalps of several
+slaughtered Blackfeet. As quoted in Hazard Stevens's _Life of Governor
+Stevens_, he began his harangue thus: "My people, what have you done?
+While I was gone you sold my country. I have come home and there is not
+left me a place on which to pitch my lodge. Go home to your lodges. I will
+talk with you." Lieutenant Kip declares that though he could understand
+nothing of the speech of Looking Glass to his own tribe, which followed,
+the effect was tremendous. All the evidence showed that Looking Glass was
+a veritable Demosthenes. The work of Governor Stevens was all undone.
+
+But later the Governor and Lawyer succeeded in rallying their forces and
+gaining the acquiescence of the Indians to the setting aside of three
+great reservations, one on the Umatilla, one on the Yakima, and the third
+on the Clearwater and the Snake. These reservations still exist, imperial
+domains in themselves, though now divided into individual allotments. The
+acquiescence of the Indians in this treaty, as the sequel proved, was
+feigned by a number of them, but for the time it seemed a great triumph
+for Governor Stevens. From Walla Walla the Governor departed to the
+Coeur d'Alene, the Pend Oreille, and the Missoula regions to continue
+his arduous task of negotiating treaties.
+
+This great Walla Walla Council cannot be dismissed without brief reference
+to an event, not fully known at the time, but which subsequent
+investigation made clear, and stamped as one of the most dramatic in the
+entire history of Indian warfare. This event was the conspiracy of the
+Cayuses and Yakimas to kill Governor Stevens and his entire band, and then
+exterminate the whites throughout the country. While the acceptance of the
+treaty was still pending, Kamiakin and Peupeumoxmox were framing the
+details of this wide-reaching plot, which was indeed but the culmination
+of their great scheme of years. Kamiahkin was the soul of the conspiracy.
+He was a remarkable Indian. He was of superb stature, and proportions,
+over six feet high, sinewy and active. Governor Stevens said of him: "He
+is a peculiar man, reminding me of the panther and the grizzly bear. His
+countenance has an extraordinary play, one moment in frowns, the next in
+smiles, flashing with light and black as Erebus the same instant. His
+pantomime is great, and his gesticulation much and characteristic. He
+talks mostly in his face and with his hands and arms." He was withal a
+typical Indian in treachery and secretiveness. Peupeumoxmox was similar in
+nature, but was older and less capable.
+
+Exactly opposite to these was Halhaltlossot, or Lawyer, the Solon of the
+Nez Perces. Lawyer became convinced of the existence of this conspiracy
+and went by night to the camp of Governor Stevens and revealed it. He
+concluded his revelation by saying: "I will come with my family and pitch
+my lodge in the midst of your camp, that those Cayuses may see that you
+and your party are under the protection of the head chief of the Nez
+Perces." When it became clear to the conspiring Cayuses and Yakimas that
+Lawyer's powerful division of the Nez Perces was sustaining the little
+band of whites, they did not execute their design. Lawyer and his Nez
+Perces saved the day for the whites.
+
+And yet the sequel is one of the most lamentable examples of the
+miscarriage of justice in Indian affairs that we have any record of. The
+friendly Nez Perces saved the whites. The unfriendly faction of the Nez
+Perces, led by Joseph and Looking Glass, finally yielded and accepted the
+treaty. But they did this with certain expectations in regard to their
+reservation. This was set forth to the author by William McBean, a
+half-breed Indian, son of the McBean who was the commandant of the
+Hudson's Bay post at Wallula. McBean the younger was a boy at the time of
+the council at Walla Walla. He was familiar with all the Indian languages
+spoken at the council and in appearance was so much of an Indian that he
+could pass unquestioned anywhere. Governor Stevens asked him to spy out
+the situation and learn what the Nez Perces were going to decide. The
+result of his investigations was to show that the whole decision hinged on
+the understanding by Joseph's faction that, if they acquiesced in the
+treaty and turned their support to the whites, they might retain perpetual
+possession of the Wallowa country in North-eastern Oregon as their special
+allotment. Becoming finally satisfied that this would be granted them,
+they yielded to the Lawyer faction and thus the entire Nez Perce tribe
+made common cause with the whites, rendering the execution of the great
+plot of Kamiakin and Peupeumoxmox a foredoomed failure. But now for the
+sequel. Though it was thus clear in the minds of Joseph and his division
+of the Nez Perces that the loved Wallowa (one of the fairest regions that
+ever the sun shone on and a perfect land for Indians) was to be their
+permanent home, yet the stipulation, if indeed it were intended by
+Governor Stevens, never became definitely set down in the "Great Father's"
+records at Washington. The result was that when, twenty years later, the
+manifold attractions of the Wallowa country began to draw white
+immigration, the Indians, now under Young Joseph, son of the former chief,
+stood by their supposed rights and the great Nez Perce War of 1877 ensued.
+
+And now, to resume the thread of our discourse, we may note that Governor
+Stevens proceeded on his laborious mission to the Flatheads in the region
+of the Coeur d'Alene and Pend Oreille lakes in what is now Northern
+Idaho. After protracted and at times excited discussion, a treaty was
+accepted by which an immense tract of a million and a quarter acres was
+set apart for a reservation. From Pend Oreille, Governor Stevens with his
+little force, now reduced to twenty-two, crossed the Rockies to Fort
+Benton.
+
+But what was happening on the Walla Walla? No sooner was the governor
+fairly out of sight across the flower-bespangled plains which extended two
+hundred miles north-east from Walla Walla, than the wily Kamiakin began to
+resume his plots. So successful was he, with the valuable assistance of
+Peupeumoxmox, Young Chief, and Five Crows, that the treaties, just
+ratified, were torn to shreds, and the flame of savage warfare burst forth
+across the entire Columbia Valley.
+
+Hazard Stevens, in his invaluable history of his father, gives a vivid
+picture of how the news reached them in their camp thirty-five miles up
+the Missouri from Fort Benton. Summer had now passed into autumn. A
+favourable treaty had been made with the Blackfeet. On October 29th, the
+little party were gathered around their campfire in the frosty air of fall
+in that high latitude, when they discerned a solitary rider making his way
+slowly toward them. As he drew near they soon saw that it was Pearson, the
+express rider. Pearson was one of the best examples of those scouts whose
+lives were spent in conveying messages from forts to parties in the field.
+He usually travelled alone, and his life was always in his hand. He seemed
+to be made of steel springs, and it had been thought that he could endure
+anything. "He could ride anything that wore hair." He rode seventeen
+hundred and fifty miles in twenty-eight days at one time, one stage of two
+hundred and sixty miles having been made in three days. But as he slowly
+drew up to the party in the cold evening light, it was seen that even
+Pearson was "done." His horse staggered and fell, and he himself could not
+stand or speak for some time. After he had been revived he told his story,
+and a story of disaster and foreboding it was, sure enough.
+
+All the great tribes of the Columbia plains west of the Nez Perces had
+broken out, the Cayuses, Yakimas, Palouses, Walla Wallas, Umatillas, and
+Klickitats. They had swept the country clean of whites. The ride of
+Pearson from The Dalles to the point where he reached Governor Stevens is
+one of the most thrilling in the annals of the River. By riding all day
+and night, he reached a horse ranch on the Umatilla belonging to a noted
+half-breed Indian, William McKay, but he found the place deserted. Seeing
+a splendid horse in the bunch near by, he lassoed and saddled him. Though
+the horse was as wild as air, Pearson managed to mount and start on. Just
+then there swept into view a force of Indians who, instantly divining what
+Pearson was trying to do, gave chase. Up and down hill, through vale, and
+across the rim-rock, they followed, sending frequent bullets after him,
+and yelling like demons, "Whupsiah si-ah-poo, Whup-si-ah!" ("Kill the
+white man!") But the wild horse which the intrepid rider bestrode proved
+his salvation, for he gradually outran all his pursuers. Travelling
+through the Walla Walla at night Pearson reached the camp of friendly Nez
+Perce Red Wolf on the Alpowa the next day, having ridden two hundred miles
+from The Dalles without stopping except the brief time changing horses.
+Snow and hunger now impeded his course. Part of the way he had to go on
+snowshoes without a horse. But with unflinching resolution he passed on,
+and so now here he was with his dismal tidings.
+
+The despatches warned Governor Stevens that Kamiakin with a thousand
+warriors was in the Walla Walla Valley and that it would be impossible for
+him to get through by that route, and that he must therefore return to the
+East by the Missouri and come back to his Territory by the steamer route
+of Panama. That meant six months' delay. With characteristic boldness,
+Governor Stevens at once rejected the more cautious course and went right
+back to Spokane by the Coeur d'Alene Pass, deep already with the winter
+snows, suffering intensely with cold and hunger, but avoiding by that
+route the Indians sent out to intercept him. With extraordinary address,
+he succeeded in turning the Spokane Indians to his side. The Nez Perces,
+thanks to Lawyer's fidelity, were still friendly, and with these two
+powerful tribes arrayed against the Yakimas, there was still hope of
+holding the Columbia Valley.
+
+After many adventures, Governor Stevens reached Olympia in safety.
+Governor Curry of Oregon had already called a force of volunteers into the
+field. The Oregon volunteers were divided into two divisions, one under
+Colonel J. W. Nesmith, which went into the Yakima country, and the other
+under Lieutenant-Colonel J. K. Kelley, which went to Walla Walla. The
+latter force fought the decisive battle of the campaign on the 7th, 8th,
+9th, and 10th of December, 1855. It was a series of engagements occurring
+in the heart of the Walla Walla Valley, a "running fight" culminating at
+what is now called Frenchtown, ten miles west of the present city of Walla
+Walla. The most important feature of it all was the death of the great
+Walla Walla chieftain, Peupeumoxmox. But though defeated and losing so
+important a chief, the Indians scattered across the rivers and were still
+unsubdued.
+
+In March, 1856, the sublime section of the Columbia lying between The
+Dalles and the Cascades became the scene of a series of atrocities the
+most distressing in the entire war. The Klickitats swooped down upon the
+defenceless settlers and massacred them with revolting cruelty. They
+vanished like a whirlwind, but men whom the writer has known have related
+to him how the volunteers, returning to the scenes of desolation, found
+all houses destroyed and the carcasses of cattle thrown into the springs
+and wells. They found the naked bodies of the girls and women with stakes
+driven through, and those of men horribly mutilated. In savage humour, the
+Indians had killed the hogs and left parts of human bodies in their
+mouths. One interesting fact connected with the campaign at the Cascades
+is that General Phil Sheridan fought his first battle there. The old Block
+House on the north side of the River, nearly opposite the present Cascade
+Locks, existed until a few years ago, and there was Sheridan's first
+battle.
+
+Meanwhile Governor Stevens had organised a force of Washington volunteers.
+As the year 1856 progressed, it seemed more plain that the discord which
+developed between the regulars under command of General John E. Wool and
+the volunteers would result in fatal weakness. Nevertheless Governor
+Stevens and Governor Curry kept pressing the movements of their backwoods
+soldiers with unflagging energy. They were at last rewarded with a measure
+of success. For Colonel B. F. Shaw, commanding the Washington volunteers,
+learning that the hostiles were camped in force in the Grande Ronde
+Valley, made a rapid march from Walla Walla across the western spur of the
+Blue Mountains and struck the collected force of Indians a deadly blow,
+scattering them in all directions and ending the war in that quarter.
+
+But the end had not yet come in Walla Walla. Governor Stevens determined
+to hold another great council at the site of the first. Leaving The Dalles
+on August 19th, he pressed on to Shaw's camp, two miles above the
+present location of Walla Walla. On September 5th, Colonel E. J. Steptoe,
+with four companies of regulars, arrived at the same place and made camp
+on the site of the present fort.
+
+[Illustration: Col. B. F. Shaw, who Won the Battle of Grande Ronde in
+1856. By Courtesy of Major Lee Moorehouse.]
+
+And now came on the second great Walla Walla council. The tribes were
+gathered as before, and were aligned as before. The division of Nez Perces
+under Lawyer stood firmly by Stevens and the treaty. The others did not.
+The most unfortunate feature of the entire matter was that Colonel
+Steptoe, acting under General Wool's instructions, thus far kept secret,
+refused to grant Stevens adequate support and subjected him to
+humiliations which galled the fiery Governor to the limit. In fact, had it
+not been for the vigilance of the faithful Nez Perces of Lawyer's band,
+Stevens and his force would surely have met the doom prepared for them at
+the first council. The debt of gratitude due Lawyer is incalculable.
+Spotted Eagle ought to be recorded, too, as of similar devotion and
+watchfulness. Governor Stevens afterward declared that a speech by him in
+favour of the whites was equal in feeling, truth, and courage to any
+speech that he ever heard from any orator whatever.
+
+But in spite of oratory, zeal, and argument, nothing could overcome the
+influence of Kamiakin, Owhi, Quelchen, Five Crows, and others of the
+Yakimas and Cayuses. Nothing was gained. They stood just where they were a
+year before. The fatal results of divided counsels between regulars and
+volunteers were apparent.
+
+The baffled Governor now started on his way down the River, but not
+without another battle. For, as he was marching a short distance south of
+what is now Walla Walla city, the Indians burst upon his small force with
+the evident intention of ending all scores then and there. But Colonel
+Steptoe came to the rescue, and with united forces the Indians were
+repulsed.
+
+That was the last battle on the Walla Walla. Colonel Steptoe established a
+rude stockade fort on Mill Creek in what is now the heart of the present
+Walla Walla city, and went into winter quarters there in 1856-57. Governor
+Stevens returned to Olympia and launched forth a bitter arraignment
+against Wool. The latter, however, was in a position of vantage and issued
+a proclamation commanding all whites in the upper country to go down the
+River and leave the Cascade Mountains as the eastern limit of the white
+settlement. Thus ended for a time this unsatisfactory and distressing war.
+To all appearances Kamiakin and his adherents had accomplished all they
+wanted.
+
+But this was not the end. Gold had been discovered in Eastern Washington.
+Vast possibilities of cattle raising were evident on those endless
+bunch-grass hills. Although there was as yet little conception of the
+future developments of the Inland Empire in agriculture and gardening, yet
+the keen-eyed immigrants and volunteers had scanned the pleasant vales and
+abounding streams of the Walla Walla and the Umatilla and the Palouse, and
+had decided in their own minds that, Wool or no Wool, this land must be
+opened. In 1857 the Government decided on a change of policy and sent
+General N. S. Clarke to take Wool's place. General Clarke opened the
+gates, and the impatient army of land hunters and gold hunters began to
+move in. Meanwhile, Colonel Wright and Colonel Steptoe, though formerly
+they had closely followed Wool's policy, now began to experience a change
+of heart. Out of these conditions the third Indian war, in 1858, quickly
+succeeded the second, being indeed its inevitable sequence.
+
+[Illustration: Fort Sheridan on the Grande Ronde, Built by Philip Sheridan
+in 1855. By Courtesy of Major Lee Moorehouse.]
+
+Three campaigns marked this third war. The first was conducted by Colonel
+Steptoe against the Spokanes and Coeur d'Alenes, and ended in his
+humiliating and disastrous defeat. The second was directed by Major
+Garnett against the Yakimas, resulting in their permanent overthrow. The
+third was conducted by Colonel Wright against the Spokanes and other
+northern tribes who had defeated Steptoe. This was the Waterloo of the
+Indians, and it ushered in the occupation and settlement of the upper
+Columbia country.
+
+The Steptoe expedition was the most ill-starred event in the whole history
+of the North-west, unless we except that of the destruction of the
+_Tonquin_. Colonel Wright was then in command of the new Fort Walla Walla,
+located in 1857 on the present ground. Perceiving his former error in
+giving the turbulent and treacherous natives undisputed sway, he ordered
+Colonel Steptoe to go with two hundred dragoons to the Spokane region and
+subject the restless tribes centring there. Steptoe's force was well
+equipped in every way except one. The pack train was heavily laden, and an
+inebriated quartermaster conceived the brilliant idea of lessening the
+burden by _leaving out the larger part of the ammunition_. Even aside from
+this fatal blunder, Colonel Steptoe seems to have had no adequate
+conception of the vigour and resources of the Indians.
+
+As before, the Nez Perces were the faithful friends of the whites.
+Timothy, a Nez Perce chief living on Snake River at the mouth of the
+Alpowa, put them across the wicked stream, then running high with the May
+freshet, and went on with them as guide.
+
+On May 16, 1858, the force reached a point near four lakes, probably the
+group of which Silver Lake and Medical Lake are the chief ones, a few
+miles west of Spokane. Here was gathered a formidable array, Spokanes,
+Pend Oreilles, Coeur d'Alenes, Okanogans, and Colvilles, the hosts of
+the upper country. Steptoe was soldier enough to perceive that it was time
+for caution, and he halted for a parley. Saltese, a brawny chief of the
+Coeur d'Alenes, declared to him that the Indians were ready to dispute
+his farther progress, but that if the white men would retire the Indians
+would not molest them. A friendly Nez Perce, seeing the duplicity of
+Saltese, struck his mouth, exclaiming, "You speak with a double tongue."
+
+The force turned back and that night all seemed well. But at nine o'clock
+the next morning, while the soldiers were descending a canyon to Pine
+Creek, near the present site of Rosalia, a large force of Indians burst
+upon them like a cyclone. As the battle began to wax hot, the terrible
+consequences of the error of lack of ammunition began to become manifest.
+Man after man had to cease firing. Captain O. H. P. Taylor and Lieutenant
+Gaston commanded the rear-guard. With extraordinary skill and devotion
+they held the line intact and foiled the efforts of the savages to burst
+through. Meanwhile the whole force was moving as rapidly as consistent
+with formation on their way southward. Taylor and Gaston sent a messenger
+forward, begging Steptoe to halt the line and give them a chance to load.
+But the commander felt that the safety of the whole force depended on
+pressing on. Soon a fierce rush of Indians followed, and, when the surge
+had passed, the gallant rear-guard was buried under it. One notable figure
+in the death-grapple was De May, a Frenchman, trained in the Crimea and
+Algeria, and an expert fencer. For some time he used his gun barrel as a
+sword and swept the Indians down by dozens with his terrific sweeps. But
+at last he fell before numbers, and one of his surviving comrades relates
+that he heard him shouting his last words, "O, my God, my God, for a
+sabre!"
+
+But the lost rear-guard saved the rest. For they managed to hold back the
+swarm of foes until nightfall, when they reached a somewhat defensible
+position a few miles from the towering cone of what is now known as
+Steptoe Butte. There they spent part of a dark, rainy, and dismal night,
+anticipating a savage attack. But the Indians, sure of their prey, waited
+till morning. Surely the first light would have revealed a massacre equal
+to the Custer massacre of later date, had not the unexpected happened. And
+the unexpected was that old Timothy, the Nez Perce guide, knew a trail
+through a rough canyon, the only possible exit without discovery. In the
+darkness of midnight the shattered command mounted and followed at a
+gallop the faithful Timothy on whose keen eyes and mind their salvation
+rested. The wounded and a few footmen were dropped at intervals along the
+trail. After an eighty-mile gallop during the day and night following, the
+yellow flood of Snake River suddenly broke before them between its
+desolate banks. Saved! The unwearied Timothy threw out his own warriors as
+a screen against the pursuing foe, and set his women to ferrying the
+soldiers across the turbulent stream.
+
+Thus the larger part of the command reached Fort Walla Walla alive.
+
+One of the most extraordinary individual experiences connected with the
+Steptoe retreat, was that of Snickster and Williams. Some of the survivors
+question the correctness of this, and others vouch for its accuracy. It
+perhaps should not be set down as proven history. Snickster and Williams
+were riding one horse, and could not keep up with the main body. The
+Indians, therefore, overtook and seized them before they reached the Snake
+River. In a rage because of having been balked of their prey, the Indians
+determined to have some amusement out of the unfortunate pair, and told
+them to go into the river with their horse and try to swim across. Into
+the dangerous stream, two thousand feet wide, almost ice-cold, and with a
+powerful current, they went. As soon as they were out a score of yards,
+the Indians began their fun by making a target of them. The horse was
+almost immediately killed. Williams was struck and sank. Snickster's arm
+was broken by a ball, but diving under the dead horse, and keeping himself
+on the farther side till somewhat out of range, and then boldly striking
+across the current, which foamed with Indian bullets, he reached the south
+side of the river and was drawn out, almost dead, by some of Timothy's
+Nez Perce Indians.
+
+[Illustration: Tullux Holiquilla, a Warm Springs Indian Chief, Famous in
+the Modoc War as a Scout for U. S. Troops. By Courtesy of Major Lee
+Moorehouse.]
+
+With the defeat of Steptoe, the Indians may well have felt that they were
+invincible. But their exultation was short-lived. As already noted,
+Garnett crushed the Yakimas at one blow, and Wright a little later
+repeated Steptoe's march to Spokane, but did not repeat his retreat. For
+in the battle of Four Lakes on September 1st, and that of Spokane Plains
+on September 5th, Wright broke for ever the power and spirits of the
+northern Indians.
+
+The treaties were thus established at last by war. The reservations,
+embracing the finest parts of the Umatilla, Yakima, Clearwater, and
+Coeur d'Alene regions, were set apart, and to them after considerable
+delay and difficulty the tribes were gathered.
+
+With the end of this third great Indian war and the public announcement by
+General Clarke that the country might now be considered open to
+settlement, immigration began to pour in, and on ranch and river, in mine
+and forest, the well-known labours of the American state-builders and
+home-builders became displayed. The ever-new West was repeating itself.
+
+The Valley of the Columbia now rested from serious strife for a number of
+years. But in 1877, an echo of the war of 1855 suddenly startled the
+country, and provided an event to which lovers of the tragic and romantic
+in history have ever since turned with deep interest. This was the "Joseph
+War" in the Wallowa. Our readers will recall that the so-called Joseph
+band of Nez Perces opposed the Walla Walla Treaty at first, but finally
+acquiesced, with what they understood was the stipulation that they
+should possess the Wallowa country as their permanent home. The Joseph of
+that time was succeeded by his son, whose Indian name was Hallakallakeen,
+"Eagle Wing." He was the finest specimen of the native red man ever
+produced in the Columbia Valley. Of magnificent stature and proportions,
+with a rare dignity and nobility, which wider opportunities would have
+made remarkable, and with a career of mingled light and shade, pathos and
+tragedy, Hallakallakeen will go down into history with a record of
+passionate devotion from his followers and unstinted encomiums from most
+of his opponents.
+
+Joseph loved the Wallowa with a passionate affection, and made at first
+every effort to maintain amity with his white neighbours. But when the
+Government violated what he had regarded its sacred pledge and permitted
+entrance upon the lands which he claimed, he refused to abide by the
+decision and led out his warriors to battle. The Nez Perces, though few in
+number, could fight face to face with white men, and could use white men's
+weapons and white men's tactics. At a desperate battle at White Bird Canyon
+they routed the detachment in command of Colonel Perry. The result was to
+put arms, ammunition, and provisions in abundance into the hands of the
+Indians and hope into their hearts.
+
+General O. O. Howard, then commanding the department of the Columbia, now
+assumed command and began so vigorous a campaign against Joseph that the
+Indian chief plainly saw that with all his activity he could not avoid
+being seized in the closing arms of Howard's command. The interesting
+details of the marches, countermarches, desperate encounters, sometimes
+favourable to white man and sometimes to red, are to be found in General
+Howard's own book. At last, with marvellous skill and good fortune, Joseph
+eluded capture and adopted the desperate resolution of crossing the Bitter
+Root Mountains by the Lolo trail, descending the Missouri, and ultimately
+reaching the Canadian line beyond the land of the Sioux. Encumbered as he
+was with his women, children, and entire movable possessions, obliged to
+forage and hunt on the way, and avoiding pursuers in rear as well as
+forces coming to meet him in front, fighting frequent and some of the time
+successful battles,--the Nez Perce chieftain exhibited qualities of
+leadership and resources of mind and body which offer materials for a
+historical romance equal to De Quincey's _Flight of the Kalmuck Tartars_.
+
+[Illustration: Hallakallakeen (Eagle Wing) or Joseph, the Nez Perce Chief.
+By T. W. Tolman.]
+
+Howard's tireless pursuit in the rear and the active and intelligent
+co-operation of Gibbon and Miles, who ascended the Missouri to meet the
+fleeing Nez Perces, resulted at last in their capture at Bear Paw Mountain
+on the Milk River in Montana.
+
+General Howard says that the campaign from the beginning of the Indian
+pursuit across the Lolo trail until the embarkation on the Missouri for
+the homeward journey, including all stoppages and halts, extended from
+July 27th to October 10th, during which time his command marched one
+thousand three hundred and twenty-one miles. He says that Joseph,
+encumbered with women, children, and possessions, traversed even greater
+distances, "for he had to make many a loop in his skein, many a deviation
+into a tangled thicket, to avoid or deceive his enemy." Howard pays the
+highest tribute to his Indian foe and declares that some of his
+operations are not often equalled in warfare.
+
+Joseph's subsequent career was a melancholy one. Transported with his band
+to Oklahoma, the wild eagle of the Wallowa so pined away on the flat
+prairie and begged so piteously to be allowed to return to the waters of
+the Columbia, that his request was granted. But so intense was the feeling
+among the people who had suffered from their dangerous enemy that this
+poor fragment of the Nez Perces was placed on the Colville Reservation in
+Northern Washington. There the restless heart of the Nez Perce Bonaparte
+was eaten out by bitter yearnings for his loved Wallowa.
+
+He had an occasional proud and interesting hour. At the time of General
+Grant's obsequies at New York, Joseph was in Washington to see the "Great
+Father" about his reservation. General Miles, who greatly admired the hero
+of the Lolo trail, asked him to ride with himself at the head of the
+funeral procession. Mounted on a magnificent charger, Joseph rode solemnly
+through the streets of the metropolis by the side of the conqueror of Bear
+Paw Mountain, and there were not wanting those who said that the Indian
+was the finer horseman and the finer-looking man.
+
+But Joseph died at his camp on the Nespilem without ever seeing Wallowa.
+His last request was that he be buried there. He remained an Indian to the
+last, not ordinarily living in a house or wearing civilised costume or
+even speaking English, though perfectly able to do so. His life might have
+been happier had he never been known to fame.
+
+[Illustration: Camp of Chief Joseph on the Nespilem, Wash. Photo. by T. W.
+Tolman, Spokane.]
+
+The next year after the Joseph War, or in 1878, occurred the Bannock War,
+the scene of which was mainly Umatilla County in Oregon and other parts
+adjoining the River. Though at first, as has happened so many times, the
+Indians met with successes, the end was their inevitable defeat.
+
+With the close of the Bannock War it may be said that Indian warfare
+practically ended. The war-whoop ceased to be heard and the tomahawk was
+brandished no more along the Columbia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+When the Fire-Canoes Took the Place of the Log-Canoes
+
+    Variety of Craft that have Navigated the Columbia--The _Beaver_,
+    _Carolina_, _Columbia_, and _Lot Whitcomb_--Beginning of Steamboating
+    above the Cascades--Steamboats above The Dalles--Rival Companies on
+    the River--The Oregon Steam Navigation Company--Great Business
+    Developments of the Decade of the Sixties--Specimen Shipments in
+    1862--The Steamboat Ride from Portland to Lewiston--Some of the
+    Steamboat Men of the Period--Story of W. H. Gray and his Sailboat on
+    the Snake River--Descending The Dalles--Captain Coe's Account of the
+    First Steamboat Ride on the Upper Columbia and the Snake--Navigation
+    above Colville and on the Lakes--The Locks and Prospects of Future
+    Navigation--Remarkable Trips on the River--Some Steamboats of the
+    Present.
+
+
+We have learned that our River has been navigated by boats of almost every
+description. At one time it was the hollowed cedar-log canoes of the
+aborgines. Again, the bateaux of the trappers were the chief craft to cut
+the blue lakes and the white rapids. At yet other times it was the
+flat-boats of the immigrants. Sailing ships of every sort--frigates,
+galleons, caravels, men-of-war, full-rigged ships, barks, brigs,
+schooners, and sloops--crowded early to the silver gate of the River.
+
+In due process of time the "Fire-canoes," as the natives called steamers,
+let loose their trails of smoke amid the tops of the "continuous woods."
+The _Beaver_, a small steamship belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company
+and sent from England, entered the River in 1836, the first steamer to ply
+these waters. The Company afterwards sent her to Puget Sound, and, if we
+are correctly informed, she is still afloat on the Gulf of Georgia. In
+1850 the first American steamship, the _Carolina_, crossed the Bar. In the
+same year a little double-ender, called the _Columbia_, began running
+between Portland and Astoria.
+
+[Illustration: Tirzah Trask, a Umatilla Indian Girl--Taken as an Ideal of
+Sacajawea. Photo. by Lee Moorehouse, Pendleton.]
+
+The first river steamer of any size to ply upon the Willamette and
+Columbia was the _Lot Whitcomb_. This steamer was built by Whitcomb and
+Jennings. J. C. Ainsworth was the first captain, and Jacob Kamm was the
+first engineer. Both these men became leaders in every species of
+steamboating enterprise. In 1851 Dan Bradford and B. B. Bishop inaugurated
+a movement to connect the up-river region with the lower river by getting
+a small iron propeller called the _Jason P. Flint_ from the East and
+putting her together at the Cascades, whence she made the run to Portland.
+The _Flint_ has been named as first to run above the Cascades, but the
+author has the authority of Mr. Bishop for stating that the first steamer
+to run above the Cascades was the _Eagle_. That steamer was brought in
+sections by Allen McKinley to the upper Cascades in 1853, there put
+together, and set to plying on the part of the river between the Cascades
+and The Dalles. In 1854, the _Mary_ was built and launched above the
+Cascades, the next year the _Wasco_ followed, and in 1856 the _Hassalo_
+began to toot her jubilant horn at the precipices of the mid-Columbia. In
+1859 R. R. Thompson and Lawrence Coe built the _Colonel Wright_, the
+first steamer on the upper section of the River. In the same year the same
+men built at the upper Cascades a steamer called the _Venture_. This craft
+met with a curious catastrophe. For on her very first trip she swung too
+far into the channel and was carried over the upper Cascades, at the point
+where the Cascade Locks are now located. She was subsequently raised,
+rebuilt, and rechristened the _Umatilla_.
+
+This part of the period of steamboat building was cotemporary with the
+Indian wars of 1855 and 1856. The steamers, _Wasco_, _Mary_, and _Eagle_
+were of much service in rescuing victims of the murderous assault on the
+Cascades by the Klickitats.
+
+While the enterprising steamboat builders were thus making their way
+up-river in the very teeth of Indian warfare, steamboats were in course of
+construction on the Willamette. The _Jennie Clark_ in 1854 and the _Carrie
+Ladd_ in 1858 were built for the firm of Abernethy, Clark & Company. These
+both, the latter especially, were really elegant steamers for the time.
+
+The close of the Indian wars in 1859 saw a quite well-organised steamer
+service between Portland and The Dalles, and the great rush into the upper
+country was just beginning. The _Senorita_, the _Belle_, and the
+_Multnomah_, under the management of Benjamin Stark, were on the run from
+Portland to the Cascades. A rival steamer, the _Mountain Buck_, owned by
+Ruckle and Olmstead, was on the same route. These steamers connected with
+boats on the Cascades-Dalles section by means of portages five miles long
+around the rapids. There was a portage on each side of the River. That on
+the north side was operated by Bradford & Company, and their steamers
+were the _Hassalo_ and the _Mary_. Ruckle and Olmstead owned the portage
+on the south side of the River, and their steamer was the _Wasco_. Sharp
+competition arose between the Bradford and Stark interests on one side and
+Ruckle and Olmstead on the other. The Stark Company was known as the
+Columbia River Navigation Company, and the rival was the Oregon
+Transportation Company. J. C. Ainsworth now joined the Stark party with
+the _Carrie Ladd_. So efficient did this reinforcement prove to be that
+the Transportation Company proposed to them a combination. This was
+effected in April, 1859, and the new organisation became known as the
+Union Transportation Company. This was soon found to be too loose a
+consolidation to accomplish the desired ends, and the parties interested
+set about a new combination to embrace all the steamboat men from Celilo
+to Astoria. The result was the formation of the Oregon Steam Navigation
+Company, which came into legal existence on December 20, 1860. Its stock
+in steamboats, sailboats, wharf-boats, and miscellaneous property was
+stated at $172,500.
+
+Such was the genesis of the "O. S. N. Co." In a valuable article by Irene
+Lincoln Poppleton in the _Oregon Historical Quarterly_ for September,
+1908, to which we here make acknowledgments, it is said that no assessment
+was ever levied on the stock of this company, but that from the proceeds
+of the business the management expended in gold nearly three million
+dollars in developing their property, besides paying to the stockholders
+in dividends over two million and a half dollars. Never perhaps was there
+such a record of money-making on such a capitalisation.
+
+The source of the enormous business of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company
+was the rush into Idaho, Montana, and Eastern Oregon and Washington by the
+miners, cowboys, speculators, and adventurers of the early sixties. The
+up-river country, as described more at length in another chapter, wakened
+suddenly from the lethargy of centuries, and the wilderness teemed with
+life. That was the great steamboat age. Money flowed in streams. Fortunes
+were made and lost in a day.
+
+When first organised in 1860, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company had a
+nondescript lot of steamers, mainly small and weak. The two portages, one
+of five miles around the Cascades and the other of fourteen miles from The
+Dalles to Celilo Falls, were unequal to their task. The portages at the
+Cascades on both sides of the River were made by very inadequate wooden
+tramways. That at The Dalles was made by teams. Such quantities of freight
+were discharged from the steamers that sometimes the whole portage was
+lined with freight from end to end. The portages were not acquired by the
+company with the steamboat property, and as a result the portage owners
+reaped the larger share of the profits. During high water the portage on
+the Oregon side at the Cascades had a monopoly of the business, and it
+took one-half the freight income from Portland to The Dalles. This was
+holding the whip-hand with a vengeance, and the vigorous directors of the
+steamboat company could not endure it. Accordingly, they absorbed the
+rights of the portage owners, built a railroad from Celilo to The Dalles
+on the Oregon side, and one around the Cascades on the Washington side.
+The company was reorganised under the laws of Oregon in October, 1862,
+with a declared capitalisation of two million dollars.
+
+Business on the River in 1863 was something enormous. Hardly ever did a
+steamer make a trip with less than two hundred passengers. Freight was
+offered in such quantities at Portland that trucks had to stand in line
+for blocks, waiting to deliver and receive their loads. New boats were
+built of a much better class. Two rival companies, the Independent Line
+and the People's Transportation Line, made a vigorous struggle to secure a
+share of the business, but they were eventually overpowered. Some
+conception of the amount of business may be gained from the fact that the
+steamers transported passengers to an amount of fares running from $1000
+to $6000 a trip. On April 29, 1862, the _Tenino_, leaving Celilo for the
+Lewiston trip, had a passenger load amounting to $10,945, and a few trips
+later reported receipts of $18,000, for freight, passengers, meals, and
+berths. The steamships sailing from Portland to San Francisco showed
+equally remarkable records. On June 25, 1861, the _Sierra Nevada_ conveyed
+a treasure shipment of $228,000; July 14th, $110,000; August 24th,
+$195,558; December 5th, $750,000. The number of passengers carried on The
+Dalles-Lewiston route in 1864 was 36,000 and the tons of freight were
+21,834.
+
+It was a magnificent steamboat ride in those days from Portland to
+Lewiston. The fare was sixty dollars; meals and berths, one dollar each. A
+traveller would leave Portland at five A.M. on, perhaps, the _Wilson G.
+Hunt_, reach the Cascades sixty-five miles distant at eleven A.M., proceed
+by rail five miles to the upper Cascades, there transfer to the _Oneonta_
+or _Idaho_ for The Dalles, passing in that run from the humid, low-lying,
+heavily timbered West-of-the-mountains, to the dry, breezy, hilly
+East-of-the-mountains. Reaching The Dalles, fifty miles farther east, he
+would be conveyed by another portage railroad, fourteen miles more, to
+Celilo. There the _Tenino_, _Yakima_, _Nez Perce Chief_, or _Owyhee_ was
+waiting. With the earliest light of the morning the steamer would head
+right into the impetuous current of the River, bound for Lewiston, two
+hundred and eighty miles farther yet, taking two days, sometimes three,
+though only one to return. Those steamers were mainly of the
+light-draught, stern-wheel structure, which still characterises the
+Columbia River boats. They were swift and roomy and well adapted to the
+turbulent waters of the upper River.
+
+The captains, pilots, and pursers of that period were as fine a set of men
+as ever turned a wheel. Bold, bluff, genial, hearty, and obliging they
+were, even though given to occasional outbursts of expletives and
+possessing voluminous repertoires of "cuss-words" such as would startle
+the effete East. Any old Oregonian who may chance to cast his eyes upon
+these pages will recall, as with the pangs of childhood homesickness, the
+forms and features of steamboat men of that day; the polite yet determined
+Ainsworth, the brusque and rotund Reed, the bluff and hearty Knaggs, the
+frolicsome and never disconcerted Ingalls, the dark, powerful, and
+nonchalant Coe, the patriarchal beard of Stump, the loquacious
+"Commodore" Wolf, who used to point out to astonished tourists the
+"diabolical strata" on the banks of the River, the massive and
+good-natured Strang, the genial and elegant O'Neil, the suave and witty
+Snow, the tall and handsome Sampson, the rich Scotch brogue of McNulty,
+and dozens of others, whose combined adventures would fill a volume. One
+of the most experienced pilots of the upper River was Captain "Eph"
+Baughman, who has been running on the Snake and Columbia rivers for fifty
+years, and is yet active at the date of this publication. W. H. Gray, who
+came to Waiilatpu with Whitman as secular agent of the mission, became a
+river man of much skill. He gave four sons, John, William, Alfred, and
+James, to the service of the River, all four of them being skilled
+captains. A story narrated to the author by Captain William Gray, now of
+Pasco, Washington, well illustrates the character of the old Columbia
+River navigators. W. H. Gray was the first man to run a sailboat of much
+size with regular freight up Snake River. That was in 1860 before any
+steamers were running on that stream. Mr. Gray built his boat, a fifty-ton
+sloop, on Oosyoos Lake on the Okanogan River. In it he descended that
+river to its entrance into the Columbia. Thence be descended the Columbia,
+running down the Entiat, Rock Island, Cabinet, and Priest Rapids, no mean
+undertaking of itself. Reaching the mouth of the Snake, he took on a load
+of freight and started up the swift stream. At Five-mile Rapids he found
+that his sail was insufficient to carry the sloop up. Men had said that it
+was impossible. His crew all prophesied disaster. The stubborn captain
+merely declared, "There is no such word as fail in my dictionary." He
+directed his son and another of the crew to take the small boat, load her
+with a long coil of rope, make their way up the stream until they got
+above the rapid, there to land on an islet of rock, fasten the rope to
+that rock, then pay it out till it was swept down the rapid. They were
+then to descend the rapid in the small boat. "Very likely you may be
+upset," added the skipper encouragingly, "but if you are, you know how to
+swim." They were upset, sure enough, but they did know how to swim. They
+righted their boat, picked up the end of the floating rope, and reached
+the sloop with it. The rope was attached to the capstan, and the sloop was
+wound up by it above the swiftest part of the rapid to a point where the
+sail was sufficient to carry, and on they went rejoicing. Any account of
+steamboating on the Columbia would be incomplete without reference to
+Captain James Troup, who was born on the Columbia, and almost from early
+boyhood ran steamers upon it and its tributaries. He made a specialty of
+running steamers down the Dalles and the Cascades, an undertaking
+sometimes rendered necessary by the fact that more boats were built in
+proportion to demand on the upper than the lower River. These were taken
+down the Dalles, and sometimes down the Cascades. Once down, they could
+not return. The first steamer to run down the Tumwater Falls was the
+_Okanogan_, on May 22, 1866, piloted by Captain T. J. Stump.
+
+The author enjoyed the great privilege of descending the Dalles in the _D.
+S. Baker_ in the year 1888, Captain Troup being in command. At that
+strange point in the River, the whole vast volume is compressed into a
+channel but one hundred and sixty feet wide at low water and much deeper
+than wide. Like a huge mill-race this channel continues nearly straight
+for two miles, when it is hurled with frightful force against a massive
+bluff. Deflected from the bluff, it turns at a sharp angle to be split in
+sunder by a low reef of rock. When the _Baker_ was drawn into the suck of
+the current at the head of the "chute" she swept down the channel, which
+was almost black, with streaks of foam, to the bluff, two miles in four
+minutes. There feeling the tremendous refluent wave, she went careening
+over and over toward the sunken reef. The skilled captain had her
+perfectly in hand, and precisely at the right moment, rang the signal
+bell, "Ahead, full speed," and ahead she went, just barely scratching her
+side on the rock. Thus close was it necessary to calculate distance. If
+the steamer had struck the tooth-like point of the reef broadside on, she
+would have been broken in two and carried in fragments on either side.
+Having passed this danger point, she glided into the beautiful calm bay
+below and the feat was accomplished. Captain J. C. Ainsworth and Captain
+James Troup were the two captains above all others to whom the company
+entrusted the critical task of running steamers over the rapids.
+
+In the _Overland Monthly_ of June, 1886, there is a valuable account by
+Captain Lawrence Coe of the maiden journey of the _Colonel Wright_ from
+Celilo up what they then termed the upper Columbia.
+
+This first journey on that section of the River was made in April, 1859.
+The pilot was Captain Lew White. The highest point reached was Wallula,
+the site of the old Hudson's Bay fort. The current was a powerful one to
+withstand, no soundings had ever been made, and no boats except canoes,
+bateaux, flatboats, and a few small sailboats, had ever made the trip. No
+one had any conception of the location of a channel adapted to a
+steamboat. No difficulty was experienced, however, except at the Umatilla
+Rapids. This is a most singular obstruction. Three separate reefs, at
+intervals of half a mile, extend right across the River. There are narrow
+breaks in these reefs, but not in line with each other. Through them the
+water pours with tremendous velocity, and on account of their irregular
+locations a steamer must zigzag across the River at imminent risk of being
+borne broadside on to the reef. The passage of the Umatilla Rapids is not
+difficult at high water, for then the steamer glides over the rocks in a
+straight course.
+
+In the August _Overland_ of the same year, Captain Coe narrates the first
+steamboat trip up Snake River. This was in June, 1860, just at the time of
+the beginning of the gold excitement. The _Colonel Wright_ was loaded with
+picks, rockers, and other mining implements, as well as provisions and
+passengers. Most of the freight and passengers were put off at Wallula, to
+go thence overland. Part continued on to test the experiment of making way
+against the wicked-looking current of Snake River. After three days and a
+half from the starting point a few miles above Celilo, the _Colonel
+Wright_ halted at a place which was called Slaterville, thirty-seven miles
+up the Clearwater from its junction with the Snake. There the remainder
+of the cargo was discharged, to be hauled in waggons to the Oro Fino
+mines. The steamer _Okanogan_ followed the _Colonel Wright_ within a few
+weeks, and navigation on the Snake may be said to have fairly begun.
+During that same time the city of Lewiston, named in honour of Meriwether
+Lewis, the explorer, was founded at the junction of the Snake and
+Clearwater rivers.
+
+While parts of the Columbia and it chief tributary, the Snake, were thus
+opened to navigation by 1860, no "fire-canoe" had yet appeared on that
+magnificent stretch of navigable water from Colville into the Arrow Lakes.
+From contemporary files of the _Daily Mountaineer_ of The Dalles, we learn
+that Captain Lew White launched the _Forty-nine_ in November, 1865, at
+Colville. In December the _Forty-nine_ ascended the Columbia one hundred
+and sixty miles, nearly to the head of lower Arrow Lake, whence, meeting
+floating ice, she returned. From the _Mountaineer_ we learn also that in
+the early months of 1866 a steamer was constructed at the mouth of Boise
+River for navigation of the far upper Snake. At the same time also the
+steamer _Mary Moody_ was constructed by Z. F. Moody, on Pend Oreille Lake,
+the first steamer on any of the lakes except the Arrow Lakes of the
+Columbia.
+
+With the close of the decade of the sixties, it may be said that the
+Columbia and its tributaries had fairly entered upon the steamboat era.
+While many steamers were added within the succeeding years, the steamboat
+business was never so active on the upper River as during that early age.
+After the building of the railroads along the River and into interior
+valleys and eastward, it became apparent that the heavy handicap of
+rehandling freight at two portages would forbid the steamers from
+competing with the railroads. In 1879 the Oregon Steam Navigation Company
+sold out to the Villard interests for $5,000,000, and the Oregon Railroad
+and Navigation Company was the result.
+
+Since that time there have been few steamboats on that part of the River
+above The Dalles. The section between The Dalles and the Cascades was
+joined to the tide-water section by the opening of the Government locks at
+the Cascades in 1896, and since that time many of the finest steamers on
+the River do an immense tourist business between The Dalles and Portland.
+It is only a question of a few years till the locks at Celilo will be
+completed, and then the whole vast Inland Empire, with its enormous
+production, will be thrown open to the sea. Then there will come on a new
+age of steamboat navigation, and with it the electric railroad. The
+steamer and the trolley car will set the whole Columbia Basin next door to
+tide-water. When improvements now in view by Government are completed, our
+River will be one of the most superb steamer courses in the world. That
+may truthfully be said already of the two hundred and twenty miles from
+The Dalles to the Ocean, as well as of the three hundred miles from Kettle
+Falls, Washington, to Death Rapids, B. C.
+
+The Government engineers in Senate Document, 344, February, 1890, name the
+amount of navigable water on the Columbia and its tributaries at 1664
+miles. This may, perhaps, be an underestimation, since President Roosevelt
+has recently referred to it as twenty-five hundred miles, in which he
+probably included the lakes. Generally speaking, the rivers of the Pacific
+slope descend from high altitudes in comparatively short distances, and
+are necessarily swift. Hence we can expect no such vast extent of
+navigable water on them as the Mississippi and its affluents offer. Aside
+from the Columbia itself, the main streams, east of the Cascade Mountains
+offering steamboat transportation, are the Snake, Okanogan, and Kootenai,
+together with Lakes Pend Oreille, Chelan, Coeur d'Alene, Flathead,
+Okanogan, Kootenai, Arrow, Christina, and Slocan. On the west side are the
+Willamette, Cowlitz, and Lewis rivers.
+
+It would fill a volume to narrate even a tithe of the thrilling tales of
+daring and tragedy which gather around the subject of boating in all its
+forms on the Columbia.
+
+One of the most remarkable steamboat journeys was that elsewhere described
+in this work, under command of Captain F. P. Armstrong, of the _North
+Star_, from Jennings, Montana, on the Kootenai to Canal Flats and thence
+through the canal to Lake Columbia. With that should be coupled as equally
+daring and more difficult, the trip down Snake River, from the Seven
+Devils to Lewiston, in a steamer piloted by Captain W. P. Gray.
+
+Undoubtedly the most remarkable journey in any other sort of craft than a
+steamboat was that undertaken by a party of eighteen miners in 1865. They
+built a large sailing boat at Colville and in her ran up the entire course
+of the River, never having their boat entirely out of water, though our
+informant says that they must have had her on skids part of the way. They
+reached the very head of the Columbia, over seven hundred miles above
+their starting point, hauled their boat across Canal Flats, launched her
+again on the Kootenai, and so descended that furious stream to Fort Steele
+on Wild Horse Creek. The full history of that journey would be deserving
+of a place in any record of daring exploration.
+
+In concluding this chapter, it may be said that there are now upon the
+lower Columbia some of the swiftest and most beautiful "fire-canoes" in
+the world. These ply on the two great scenic routes, one from Portland to
+Astoria, and the other from Portland to The Dalles. The most noted of
+these swift steamers at present writing are the _Hassalo_ (No. 2), the _T.
+J. Potter_, the _Charles D. Spencer_, and the _Bailey Gatzert_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Era of the Miner, the Cowboy, the Farmer, the Boomer, and the Railroad
+Builder
+
+    Early Gold-hunters--Gold in California--Effects of that Discovery on
+    the Columbia River Country--Growth of Towns on the Columbia--Discovery
+    of Gold in the Colville Country--Gold on the Clearwater--Stampede to
+    the Idaho Mines--Cowboys Rush in with the Miners--Sudden Development
+    of Industries at Walla Walla, Lewiston, and Other Towns--Profits and
+    Fare in the Mines in 1861--The Hard Winter--Development of the Farming
+    Industry--The Boomers--The Hard Times--The Railroad Age--Beginning of
+    Railroading in the Willamette Valley--Ben Holladay--Transcontinental
+    Railways--Henry Villard--His Great Building and his Downfall--The
+    Present Railroads on the River--Dr. D. S. Baker and the Pioneer
+    Railroad on the Upper River.
+
+
+The age of gold in the Columbia pressed hard upon that of the trappers.
+But it dawned first far south.
+
+The Spaniards had sought the precious metals with boundless energy. Richly
+had the treasures of the Montezumas and the Incas rewarded their reckless
+cupidity. But as they moved northward they met with nothing but
+disappointment. The El Dorados of their ardent fancy had vanished as they
+turned toward Oregon and California.
+
+In 1848 the guns of Stockton and Fremont thundered the salvos of American
+occupation over the Sierras. Just as the sovereignty of Uncle Sam was
+acknowledged, the long-sought discovery of gold startled the world.
+
+In 1838 a gay, mercurial Switzer, Captain Sutter, had made his way with a
+band of trappers across the plains to Oregon, and thence had gone to
+California. A dashing adventurer, without money, but with boundless
+_sang-froid_ and _bonhommie_, Sutter had marvellously interested all whom
+he met and in some inexplicable manner had got money and credit sufficient
+to build a fort and start an immense ranch on the Sacramento, almost on
+the site of the present capital of the Golden State. "Sutter's fort"
+became one of the most notable places in California. In 1844 James W.
+Marshall went to the Columbia, but after only a year's stay made his way
+to California. In 1847 he entered into partnership with Sutter in a
+sawmill enterprise at Coloma on the south fork of the American River.
+There, while at work in the mill-race on the 19th of January, 1848,
+Marshall discovered shining particles. Gold!
+
+The discovery was made, and soon the secret was out. And then--! There
+never was anything quite comparable to what followed. The first and
+greatest of the great stampedes for gold took place.
+
+When the tidings reached Oregon it was as though a prairie fire were
+running over the country. Men went fairly mad. Throngs, hardly stopping to
+take their ploughs from the furrow, mounted their horses, galloped off up
+the Willamette, through the lonely valleys of the Umpqua and the Rogue
+River, over the Siskiyou, and down the Sacramento, where a fortune could
+be had for the digging.
+
+All the stress and strain of American life and history reached the utmost
+intensity in the fever strife for gold on the Sacramento. The Willamette
+and Columbia were almost equally stirred. During the first two years of
+the gold excitement homes on the Columbia were well-nigh deserted. Then
+the Oregonians began to drift back again. Some came with gold-bricks in
+their pockets and sacks of gold-dust in their packs. Some came broken in
+health and spirits, sick with disappointment. Some did not come at all,
+and their bones found unmarked graves in the pestilential ditches of the
+Sacramento.
+
+But the shrewder Oregonians perceived that they had better than a gold
+mine in the trade with California. Grain, fruit, eggs, lumber,--these were
+in such demand that frequently twenty ships at a time were moored by the
+dense forests of the lower Willamette waiting for cargoes. Gold-dust was
+the universal medium, and it seemed to be cheaper than anything else. Four
+bushels of Oregon apples brought five hundred dollars in gold-dust in San
+Francisco. Tons of eggs were sold for a dollar apiece in the gold mines.
+
+Portland, the lonely little village on the Willamette, with just enough of
+a foothold by the edge of the forest to keep from rolling into the River,
+sprang at a bound into the rank of a city. The huge firs were dug out, and
+wharves went in. The face of nature, even, as well as that of industry and
+politics, was transformed by that gold-dust in Marshall's mill-race on the
+Sacramento.
+
+But, most of all, the disposition of the people was changed. The serene,
+idyllic, pastoral age passed, and the fierce lust for wealth, the
+boundless imagination, the fever in the veins, came on. Why should there
+not be gold as well by the Columbia as by the Sacramento! The men who had
+come down the Columbia in search for homes and grass-land for cattle, now
+began to retrace their steps and turn again up the River in search of the
+precious metals. Nor was it long before discovery of gold in the region
+tributary to Colville was made known. The first discovery was at the mouth
+of the Pend Oreille River. A regular stampede ensued. Other discoveries on
+a greater scale were soon to follow. During the early days of the gold
+excitement of California, a Nez Perce Indian had wandered on to the
+Sacramento. He made acquaintance with a group of miners, who became
+impressed with his general force and dignity. Among these miners was E. D.
+Pearce, and to him the Indian gave a vivid account of his home in the
+wilds of what is now Idaho. He told also a tale of how he with two
+companions were once in the high mountains, when they beheld in the night
+a light of dazzling brilliance, with the appearance of a refulgent star.
+The Indians looked at this with awe as the eye of the Great Spirit. But in
+the morning they summoned courage sufficient to investigate, and found a
+glittering ball that looked like glass. It was so embedded in the rock
+that they could not dislodge it. It was clear to them that this was some
+great "tomanowas." On hearing this fantastic story, the mind of Pearce was
+kindled with the idea that perhaps the Indians had found an immense
+diamond. He determined to seek it. After several years he made his way up
+the Columbia and reached Walla Walla. From that point he ranged the
+mountains of Idaho, but for a long time met no success. With a company of
+seven men, he entered upon an elaborate search, which finally so much
+aroused the suspicion of the Indians that they ordered him from the
+country. Nothing daunted, however, he induced a Nez Perce woman to guide
+the party from the Palouse to the Lolo trail, from which they reached an
+unfrequented valley on the north fork of the Clearwater. There one of the
+party, W. F. Bassett, tried washing a pan of dirt, with the result that he
+got a "colour." This was the first discovery of gold in Idaho, and the
+spot was where Oro Fino afterwards stood.
+
+Fall was coming on, and after digging out a small amount of dust, the
+party deemed it wise to return to the settlements for a more thorough
+outfitting. Accordingly, they went to Walla Walla and located with J. C.
+Smith, to whom they imparted their secret. So impressed was Mr. Smith with
+the tidings that he organised a party of fifteen, with whom he returned
+just at the opening of the winter of that same year, 1860. Soon shut in by
+deep snows in inaccessible mountains, the little company built five rude
+huts, and in the intervals of the storms they dug for gold along the
+streams, meeting with such success that in March Mr. Smith made his way to
+Walla Walla with $800 in gold-dust. The dust was sent to Portland. Now
+ensued another gold excitement and stampede almost equal to that of '49 in
+California.
+
+As the miners rushed into Idaho, every other species of industry rushed up
+the River with them. The cowboy came side by side with the miner. In fact,
+already following close on the heels of the Indian war, had come an
+inrush of cattle, horses, and sheep. During the last years of the decade
+of the fifties, stockmen had driven from the Willamette Valley thousands
+of head of stock to the rich pasture lands of the Walla Walla, Umatilla,
+and Yakima. When the gold discoveries of 1860 and 1861 became known, the
+activities of the cowboys were multiplied, added bands of stock were
+driven in, all the wild and extravagant features of a combined cowboy and
+mining age, vendors of "chain-lightning and forty-rod," gamblers,
+prostitutes, murderers,--and with them missionaries and teachers,--became
+reproduced again on the shores of the Columbia, Snake, Clearwater, Salmon,
+Walla Walla, and other rivers of the Inland Empire. It was another of
+those wild eras in which the worst and the best that are in human nature
+jostled each other at every turn.
+
+Transportation problems followed close upon the cowboy and the miner. The
+Oregon Steam Navigation Company, organised in 1860, began within a year to
+run steamboats from Portland to Lewiston, with portage railroads around
+the Cascades and the Dalles. Stage lines were started from Umatilla, Walla
+Walla, and Lewiston, within a year or two after the gold discoveries of
+Oro Fino. Prairie-schooners, huge waggons, sometimes three in tandem
+fashion, drawn by a team of twenty mules, with jingling bells, driven with
+a "single line," formed the approved system of hauling freight over the
+mountain roads. In addition to the stages and prairie-schooners, however,
+thousands of mules and horses were driven with pack-saddles over the
+trails and roads. Then was the time when "throwing the diamond hitch"
+became a fine art. Then was the time, too, when it behooved stage-drivers
+and packers to be handy with a "gun," for "road-agents" were plentiful and
+vigilant. Many a man with a pack-saddle loaded with gold-dust, or
+sometimes with whiskey or even "canned goods," "passed in his checks"
+under some over-shadowing tree or behind some sheltering rock.
+
+Both the distresses and the successes of that epoch are well illustrated
+by extracts from some of the newspapers of the time. From issues of the
+_Washington Statesman_ of Walla Walla, we learn that flour was at one time
+a dollar a pound; beef, thirty to fifty cents a pound; bacon, sixty;
+beans, thirty; rice, fifty; tea a dollar and a half; tobacco, a dollar and
+a half; sugar, fifty cents; candles, a dollar. Some of these staples could
+not be had at all. Physicians, when they got into the mines, would charge
+twenty dollars a visit. Board was from five to ten dollars a day,
+frequently more.
+
+But as an offset to the expense and frequent positive suffering, we gather
+the following item from an issue of the _Statesman_ in December, 1861:
+
+    S. F. Ledyard arrived last evening from the Salmon River mines, and
+    from him it is learned that some six hundred miners would winter
+    there; that some two hundred had gone to the south side of the river,
+    where two streams head that empty into the Salmon, some thirty miles
+    south-east of the present mining camp. Coarse gold is found, and as
+    high as one hundred dollars per day to the man has been taken out. The
+    big mining claim of the old locality belongs to Mr. Weiser of Oregon,
+    from which two thousand six hundred and eighty dollars were taken out
+    on the 20th, with two rockers. On the 21st, three thousand three
+    hundred and sixty dollars were taken out with the same machines.
+
+The _Statesman_ for December 13, 1861, contains the following:
+
+    During the week past not less than two hundred and twenty-five pack
+    animals, heavily laden with provisions, have left this city for the
+    mines. A report in relation to a rich strike by Mr. Bridges of Oregon
+    City seems to come well authenticated. The first day he worked on his
+    claim (near Baboon Gulch) he took out fifty-seven ounces; the second
+    day he took out one hundred and fifty-seven ounces; the third day, two
+    hundred and fourteen ounces; and the fourth day, two hundred ounces in
+    two hours.
+
+As an ounce of gold was worth sixteen dollars, it will be seen that Mr.
+Bridges of Oregon City had truly "struck it rich."
+
+Within a year, a million and a half dollars in gold-dust had been taken
+from those mines. Anticipated demands led cattlemen to rush still larger
+numbers of stock into the upper Columbia Basin, and traders brought in yet
+larger supplies of goods into Walla Walla and Lewiston, as well as the
+mining camps themselves. A considerable part of these goods, we regret to
+narrate, consisted of material for spirituous refreshments. That the said
+refreshments were of a stalwart character may be inferred from a
+reminiscence of a traveller to Walla Walla, who relates that upon going
+into one of the numerous saloons, he found the floor covered with sawdust,
+and upon asking for whiskey, he received with it a whisk-broom. Feeling
+puzzled as to the intent of the latter, and not wishing to reveal his
+ignorance, he waited till another man came in. Waiting for developments,
+he found that the object of the broom was to sweep off a place on the
+floor to have a fit on, for the whiskey was sure to produce one. After
+having got through his fit, the happy (?) purchaser would return the broom
+and go on his way.
+
+[Illustration: An Oregon Pioneer in his Cabin. Photo. by E. H.
+Moorehouse.]
+
+Just as miners, cowboys, and traders were plunging eagerly into every form
+of enterprise, the famous "hard winter" of '61 descended upon the country.
+It was almost a Minnesota winter. There was snow on the ground from
+December 1st to March 22d, something never known before or since in the
+Columbia Basin. Cattle could find no food and perished by the thousands.
+Miners were found frozen into the stiff crust. In the rude cabins, with
+wide cracks into which the snow drifted, the few women and children in the
+Inland Empire fought a distressing and frequently losing fight. Even in
+the Willamette Valley where houses were more comfortable, supplies more
+plentiful, and the weather less severe, the conditions were hard enough.
+At Portland the price of hay was eighty dollars a ton. In Eastern Oregon
+it could not be obtained for any price, and the maintenance of life by
+cattle depended entirely on their endurance.
+
+But with the coming on of tardy spring, the rush up the River was resumed,
+and the game went on. Seven millions in gold was reported in 1862, besides
+almost as much, as was estimated, taken out in ways of which no record was
+reported.
+
+At Florence in February, 1862, flour was a dollar a pound; butter, three
+dollars; sugar, a dollar and a quarter; coffee, two dollars; boots, thirty
+dollars a pair.
+
+The enormous profits, as well as enormous expense, of developing those
+mines hastened the coming of the farmer. Among the throng that passed
+madly into the mountains for gold, and among the throng that drove the
+wide-horned cattle over the bunch-grass hills, there were a few keen-eyed
+observers who asked themselves if wheat and corn and potatoes and barley
+and fruit-trees might not grow on those broad prairies, and especially
+along the numerous watercourses descending from the Blue Mountains.
+
+A farm here and there at some favourable point beside some favouring
+stream, followed in two or three years by a flour-mill, then a few apples
+whose bright red cheeks and fragrant smell showed that the upper Columbia
+lands could match those of the Willamette, then an experimental
+wheat-field or barley-field on the high bunch-grass prairies,--and, almost
+before people realised it, the farmer was standing up beside the miner and
+the stockman, as tall and broad and important as either. The plough and
+the hoe and the mowing-machine took their places beside the pick and
+gold-pan and quirt and schapps and spurs as symbols of Columbia River
+nobility.
+
+The "boomer" was the logical result of the development of mine and range
+and farm and garden and orchard. If people were going to eat and travel
+and raise wheat and cattle, they must inevitably buy and sell. And if they
+were going to buy and sell, they must needs "boom." The decade of the
+eighties was the great age of the boom in real estate along the Columbia
+and its tributaries. Then, as also upon Puget Sound, cities were founded
+with most extravagant size and expectations--on paper. Farm lands changed
+hands rapidly. If a man could raise nothing else on his land, he could at
+least raise the price. That was the time when the boomer boomed, the
+promoter promoted, and the sucker sucked. It was a great age, but alas, it
+was followed by an awakening, similar to that which follows a night of
+carousal, when the next day brings a dark-brown taste in the mouth and a
+very heavy head. The decade of the nineties was dolorous along the River
+and in the mines and forests and farms and town-lots and additions and
+suburbs adjoining.
+
+[Illustration: Old Portage Railroad at Cascades in 1860.]
+
+[Illustration: A Log-boom Down the River for San Francisco. Photo. by
+Woodfield.]
+
+Interlocked with the days of miner, cowboy, rancher, and boomer, was
+another age of equal importance and one that was both result and cause of
+the others. This was the age of the railroad builder.
+
+Transportation by the River was a great feature of traffic in the fifties
+and sixties. But, during the second of those decades, the people of
+Portland began to realise that the time had arrived for rails as well as
+sails. The first great transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific and
+Central Pacific, was in active process of building between California and
+Omaha. A fever of railroad building spread to the Columbia River people.
+Railroads were projected from Portland on both sides of the Willamette, up
+the valley, with the view of ultimate connection with California. Surveys
+were made by S. G. Elliott from Marysville, California, to Portland in
+1863. It was October, 1870, when the first train reached Salem, the
+capital of the State. The road was known as the Oregon Central Railroad,
+and its manager and ultimately its chief owner was Ben Holladay, the most
+famous railroad man of that period in Oregon. In 1871 and 1872, railroad
+building was extended on the west side of the Willamette. The lines on
+both sides were reorganised under Mr. Holladay's control as the Oregon
+and California Railroad.
+
+Meanwhile the air was full of discussion of a transcontinental line to the
+Pacific Northwest. The conception of a Northern Pacific railroad was
+nothing new. Away back in 1853, Governor I. I. Stevens and Captain George
+B. McClellan had made a reconnaissance across the Rocky and Cascade
+Mountains and over the great plains of the Columbia, for the purpose of
+ascertaining a route for a northern line. They pronounced the route
+feasible, but the time had not yet come for such an undertaking. In a
+letter to McClellan of April 5, 1853, Governor Stevens states the route to
+be from St. Paul to Puget Sound by the great bend of the Missouri River.
+It is interesting to note that this is nearly the course afterwards
+followed.
+
+Work on the Northern Pacific was begun in the vicinity of Kalama on the
+Columbia in 1870. The financial panic of 1873 resulted in the failure of
+Jay Cooke & Company, the backers of the enterprise, and for several years
+railroad work was at a standstill.
+
+In 1879 there came to Oregon the greatest railroad builder of that era,
+Henry Villard. He was a true financial genius, daring, far-seeing,
+persistent, and self-reliant. With the quick grasp of a statesman, Mr.
+Villard perceived that the Columbia River was the key to a boundless
+opportunity. He saw that a central line up the Columbia with branches
+north, east, and south-east, might be thrust like a wedge between the
+Northern Pacific and the Union Pacific and control both. In pursuance of
+this conception he made three rapid moves. The first was the
+incorporation of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The second was
+the formation of the "blind pool" and the Oregon and Transcontinental
+Company. The third was the acquisition of a controlling interest in the
+Northern Pacific Railroad. The three years up to and including 1883 were
+years of almost feverish activity along the River. The line of the Oregon
+Railroad and Navigation Company between Wallula and Portland was pushed on
+with tireless energy. Rock bluffs were split off by enormous charges of
+dynamite, or were tunnelled through. The road was indeed built so hastily
+and the curves were in some cases so extreme that much work had to be done
+over at later times.
+
+[Illustration: Lumber Mill and Steamboat Landing at Golden, B. C. Photo.
+by C. F. Yates.]
+
+A part of Villard's plan in pushing the work so hastily was to divert the
+Northern Pacific system to the River, and make Portland rather than Puget
+Sound the western terminus. The undertaking seemed to be crowned with
+success. The connection was made. A gorgeous celebration, the greatest
+ever held in the Columbia River country, commemorated, in October, 1883,
+the completion of the transcontinental railroad to tide-water on the
+Columbia River. But in the very hour of victory, the sceptre fell from
+Villard's hands. His downfall was as sudden and dramatic as his rise. By
+clever jobbing of the market, the Wright interests regained possession of
+the majority of the Northern Pacific stock, the transcontinental pool
+broke, and at the very time that Mr. Villard was being worshipped at
+Portland as the financial god of the North-west, he learned that his
+gigantic enterprise had fallen into the hands of the enemy. But in spite
+of defeat the work of Villard was assured, and his name and fame as the
+champion railroad builder of the Columbia River was established.
+
+After the Wright interests had regained possession of the Northern
+Pacific, that great system was pushed to Puget Sound. The Oregon Short
+Line was carried to a connection with the Union Pacific system. Thus two
+independent transcontinental lines reached the River. Yet later the
+Southern Pacific system acquired control of the Oregon and California
+Railroad, and, by joining the sections, connected the Columbia River with
+the Golden Gate. Through connecting lines the Canadian Pacific Railroad
+gained access to the Columbia River. There are, therefore, four distinct
+transcontinental railroad systems into the valley of our River. Two more
+are rapidly approaching completion. As a logical result, too, many local
+and connecting lines have been built. The Astoria and Columbia River
+Railroad, on the Oregon side of the River, joins Portland to Astoria and
+Seaside and the other resorts of the ocean beach. The Oregon Railway and
+Navigation Company has continuous connection on the south side of the
+Columbia and Snake rivers to Riparia on the latter stream, and thence by a
+road on the north side, owned jointly with the Northern Pacific, to
+Lewiston, Idaho. The most remarkable of all these connecting and joint
+roads is the Portland, Seattle, and Spokane Railroad, commonly called the
+"North Bank Road." This is supposed to be the joint property of the
+Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads. It is one of the many
+monuments in the West to the financial genius and tireless energy of James
+J. Hill. It was completed in 1908, between Pasco and Portland, and at
+the first of the year following, from Pasco to Spokane. It is said to be
+the most expensively and scientifically built road in the United States,
+having curves and grades reduced to a minimum, being, in fact, a
+continuous descent from near Spokane to tide-water. Its builders evidently
+expect stupendous traffic, and every feature of the line is adjusted to
+such expectation.
+
+[Illustration: A Typical Lumber Camp. Photo. by Trueman.]
+
+Any account of the great railroads joining the Inland Empire to the River
+and thence to the seaboard would be incomplete without reference to the
+pioneer of them all, the "Strap-iron" narrow-gauge from Walla Walla to
+Wallula. This line was forced by the exigencies of the times, but it
+commemorates the rare commercial foresight and ability of a man, who, in
+native business genius, ranks with the foremost in the history of the
+Columbia Valley. This man was Dr. D. S. Baker, a native of Illinois, an
+immigrant to the Columbia in 1848, and a settler in Walla Walla in 1860.
+Perceiving the vast latent resources of the Inland Empire, he invested in
+land, founded a bank, became a partner in a store, and during much of the
+time was also actively engaged in his profession of medicine.
+
+In 1863, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was running boats from
+Portland to Lewiston, over four hundred miles, having short railroad
+portages at the Cascades and The Dalles. That was the most active era of
+the mines in Idaho. Rates from Portland to up-river points were as
+follows: freight from Portland to Wallula, $50.00 per ton; to Lewiston,
+$90.00; fare from Portland to Wallula, $18.00; to Lewiston, $28.00. (The
+rates had been much higher a year or two earlier.) From Wallula to Walla
+Walla, freight was hauled by prairie-schooners at from $10.00 to $12.00 a
+ton, thirty miles. Needless to say, the company piled up a fortune.
+
+Dr. Baker saw the possibilities of the region and, almost unaided, with
+every difficulty and discouragement, constructed a narrow gauge, with
+wooden rails, on which strap-iron was fastened. An astonishing amount of
+business was soon developed, steel rails were substituted, and the
+business made a fortune for its builder. It was absorbed by the Oregon
+Steam Navigation Company. But Dr. Baker's strap-iron road may be
+considered the true progenitor of the railroads of the upper Columbia.
+
+During these first years of the twentieth century, the shores of the River
+have echoed with the sound of whistles on many a new road, but the
+distinguishing mark has been the construction of electric roads. The lower
+Willamette Valley, centring at Portland, has become fairly swarming with
+electric roads. Spokane has become almost an equal centre of electric
+lines, while Walla Walla is following close behind her larger sisters in
+the procession. When lines already constructed from Spokane southward are
+joined to a system projected from Walla Walla northward and westward,
+there will be a complete system of independent electric lines from all
+parts of Eastern Washington and North-eastern Oregon to steamboat
+connections on the River, and thence to tide-water. The significance of
+this as a commercial fact cannot be realised as yet.
+
+[Illustration: A Logging Railroad, near Astoria. Photo. by Woodfield.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Present Age of Expansion and World Commerce
+
+    Population and Productions of the Region on the River and its
+    Tributaries--Extent of its Navigability--Improvements Needed--Kinds of
+    Traffic--Local Traffic--Transcontinental Traffic--World
+    Traffic--Advantages of the River Route for these Kinds of Traffic--The
+    Bar--The Competition of Puget Sound--The Combination of River Route
+    and Sound Route.
+
+
+We have traced the successive eras which have brought the land of the
+Oregon from a wilderness to a group of powerful young American States,
+abounding in resources and filled to the brim with hope and enthusiasm. We
+have followed the River through its eras of canoe, bateau, flatboat,
+sail-ship, and steamboat, and we have seen railroads built along its
+banks. It remains only to cast a brief final glance at the River in its
+present age, and to forecast something of what seems its sure future.
+
+It may be said that the population of those parts of Oregon, Washington,
+Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, which are embraced in the watershed of the
+Columbia, is probably nearly a million and a quarter. The population of
+the area in British Columbia is scanty, but rapidly increasing.
+
+The productive capacity is very great. A rough estimate of production in
+the valley of the Columbia for the year 1908 would probably give a grain
+production of seventy million bushels, a lumber output of three billion
+feet, a mineral output worth sixty million dollars, and a combined output
+of pastoral, horticultural, fishing, and miscellaneous industries of fifty
+millions of dollars.
+
+Such figures indicate that the Columbia River is already a factor in world
+commerce. Yet its development is but begun. What is to be its part in the
+world commerce of the future?
+
+Inspection of a map will show that the Columbia possesses the only
+water-level route from the vast productive regions of the Inland Empire to
+the seaboard. As has been shown in the course of this volume, the River is
+navigable throughout the larger part of its course from Revelstoke in
+British Columbia to the ocean. In that distance there is one canal, with
+locks. That is at the Cascades, sixty-five miles from Portland. Before the
+River can be continuously navigable it will be necessary that a canal be
+constructed to overcome the obstructions at the Dalles, a few miles above
+the city of that name, another at Priest Rapids, seventy miles above
+Pasco, and still another at Kettle Falls. The Government is already
+engaged in the first of these works. The second seems comparatively near
+of accomplishment by reason of work done and projected by a powerful
+irrigation company. Nothing has yet been done at Kettle Falls, but it
+would be comparatively a light task to provide canal and locks at that
+point. Besides these larger obstructions there are several rapids at
+points between Kettle Falls and the Dalles which impede navigation at
+certain stages of water. The Government has made surveys of these
+sections of the River, and has announced that with comparatively small
+outlay the rocks and reefs may be removed, the channels deepened and
+straightened, and the River made navigable. One thing may be emphasised in
+this connection, and this is that the Columbia River has mainly a rocky
+bed, and hence work on the channels is permanent. It will not cut and
+fill, nor pile up islands and bars as does the Missouri.
+
+In view of the capability of the River to carry great water traffic, and
+in view of the fact that railroad traffic is seeking and will still more
+seek the down-hill grade to the sea, it becomes a question of great
+interest what the future commerce of the River will be.
+
+It is evident that there will be three kinds of traffic: local,
+transcontinental, world-wide. Each is bound to be vast beyond the
+calculations or even the imagination of the present. The local traffic is
+sure to be immense, for it is estimated that there is a million acres of
+land immediately contiguous to the River, irrigable and adapted to
+intensive farming. Present experience shows that five or ten acres of such
+land are sufficient to support a family. Many cities and towns are sure to
+grow upon the banks of the River. Its banks will sometime become populated
+like those of ancient Nile. Besides the immediate region of the River,
+there are millions upon millions of acres of land more remote, the great
+wheat fields and stock ranges and valley lands of tributary streams, and
+these broad areas will seek the river route. Much of this immense local
+traffic of the future will be conveyed by steamboats and barges.
+
+The second class of traffic will be the transcontinental. All the
+railroads across the continent, except those down the Columbia, are
+obliged to climb the Cascade Mountains, four thousand feet or more in
+height. With difficulty two powerful locomotives pull a freight train of
+forty cars up the grades, and at some points even a third is needed. But a
+single locomotive will pull eighty cars on the level grades of the River
+roads. In the even keener competition bound to come, this advantage of
+grades and curves will be a factor of immense importance.
+
+The third class of future commerce is the world-wide. No western American
+can contemplate the future of the world without being persuaded that the
+Pacific Ocean and its shores will be the scene of the greatest problems of
+the twentieth century. If this prove true, that world commerce of the
+Pacific will seek that point of the American continent which most swiftly
+and cheaply communicates with the eastern side of the continent and with
+Europe. Granting that a large part of world commerce will pass through the
+Panama Canal, there will still be, without question, an immense trade
+between the Orient and such points in our own country as are so far from
+the Atlantic seaboard that a transcontinental route is a necessity.
+Moreover, even for our Atlantic seaboard and for Europe, there will be
+large amounts of products, for the transit of which time will be a great
+object. Hence we may be sure that there will be extensive world commerce
+across the American continent. If so, where will it cross? Inspection of a
+globe demonstrates that the Columbia River route is shortest, and, for
+reasons already given, it is cheapest of all.
+
+Puget Sound is its only present competitor. But the water-grade through
+the Cascade Mountains, along the banks of the Columbia, constitutes an
+advantage beyond the reach of permanent competition. Here, however, the
+critic comes in and claims that the Bar at the mouth of the River forbids
+entrance of the largest ships. This in a measure is true, though the
+difficulties of the Columbia Bar have been grossly exaggerated. There are
+over twenty-five feet of water on the Bar at the lowest tide. The
+flood-tide adds from six to twelve feet. In any ordinary weather, forty
+feet of water is safe enough for any vessel. But if marine architecture is
+going to keep pace with growing commerce, we may soon have ships drawing
+forty or fifty feet of water. If so, the Bar may indeed seriously block
+the heaviest commerce. Some observers have, therefore, believed that the
+big freights of the future will enter the Straits of Fuca, go to some one
+of the Puget Sound ports, thence pass by rail across the low tract of
+country between the Sound and the Columbia River, and proceed thence by
+the River route to the interior and eastward. This would combine the
+advantages of the two great routes of the Pacific North-west, abundant
+depth of water, low altitudes, and easy grades. This would, in truth, come
+nearest to realising the dream of the old navigators, the Strait of Anian.
+In any event, the future world will look to our River as the goal of
+markets as well as of vision, and as a highway of nations both for
+freights and for tourists.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+A Journey Down the River
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies
+
+    Extent of Navigation on the River--Attractions of a Canoe Journey--The
+    Canadian Pacific Railroad--Banff and Lake Louise--Summit of the
+    Rockies--The Continental Divide and its Western Descent--Field and the
+    Wapta River--Golden and the Upper Columbia--Peculiar Interlocking of
+    the Columbia and the Kootenai, and Professor Dawson's Explanation of
+    this--Views of the Selkirks and the Rockies--Some Steamboat Men and
+    their Tales--Captain Armstrong's Adventures on the Kootenai--The
+    Picture Rocks--Lake Windermere--The Location of the Old Thompson
+    Fort--Baptiste Morigeau and his Stories of Pioneer Days--The War
+    between the Shuswaps and the Okanogans--Down the River from
+    Golden--Rapids and Navigation--By the Canadian Pacific through the
+    Selkirks--Glacier and the Illecillewaet--Revelstoke and the River
+    again--Wise Management of the Canadian Government and the Railroad.
+
+
+A journey upon the River may best begin with its source and end with the
+ocean. It is about fourteen hundred miles by the windings of the stream
+from its origin in the upper Columbia Lake to the Pacific. It descends
+twenty-five hundred feet in that distance. It is therefore swift in many
+places. Yet it would be possible to descend almost the entire length of
+the River in a small boat. Nor can one imagine a more fascinating journey,
+especially if he could conjure back the shades of the great _voyageurs_ of
+seventy years ago, as Monique and Charlefoux, famous in Dr. McLoughlin's
+time, and listen to their gay song, mingling with the plash of oars:
+
+    Rouli, roulant, ma boule roulant,
+    En roulant, ma boule roulant.
+
+The way of approach for the Eastern tourist to a journey down the Columbia
+is by the Canadian Pacific Railway, a magnificent road in a gallery of
+masterpieces. Wonders begin before he reaches the western watershed. He
+will see Banff, with its hot springs, its immense hotel, its Bow River and
+Falls and Valley. He will see the gem of the Canadian Rockies, one of the
+gems of the earth, Lake Louise. Imagine a glistening wall of purest white,
+Mts. Lefroy and Victoria, with a vast glacier descending from them, great
+bastions of variously tinted rock closing on either side as a frame of the
+snowy picture, and in front a lake, small indeed, but of perfect form, a
+mirror in which the snowy wall, the glacier, the rocky ramparts, find a
+duplication as distinct as themselves.
+
+A few miles farther west, and the traveller will find himself at one of
+the most significant of all places, the Continental Divide. Eastward the
+water flows into the Bow, thence into the Saskatchewan, and ultimately
+into the Atlantic. Westward the springs find their way to the branches of
+the Wapta, thence to the Columbia and the Pacific. The long westward
+ascent which we have followed all the way from Winnipeg ends at last. The
+track becomes level. We are at the summit. Looking southward we can see
+descending the steep slope, a clear mountain stream, which is parted into
+two branches by a little wall of stone. One branch goes east to the
+Atlantic, the other west to the Pacific.
+
+It must have been of some such place, though farther north, that Holmes
+was imagining when he wrote:
+
+    Yon stream, whose sources run
+      Turned by a pebble's edge,
+    Is Athabasca, rolling toward the sun,
+      Through the cleft mountain-ledge.
+
+    The slender rill had strayed
+      But for the slanting stone,
+    To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid
+      Of foam-flecked Oregon.
+
+At the parting of the streams, a pretty rustic framework has been erected,
+bearing the words, "The Continental Divide."
+
+We are now on the Columbia's waters. We are also in the heart of the
+Canadian Rockies, and in the midst of a perfect sea of mountains. It has
+been said that British Columbia is "fifty or sixty Switzerlands rolled
+into one." Here are five distinct ridges, up and down, and through and
+around which, the Columbia and its affluents chase each other in a dizzy
+dance.
+
+The descent of the west side of the Divide is appallingly steep. From
+Stephen to Field is a drop of one thousand two hundred and fifty-seven
+feet in ten miles. In that distance are several places which reach two
+hundred and thirty-six feet to the mile. Most explicit directions are
+given to engineers in respect to handling trains on this grade. A speed of
+only six miles an hour is allowed, and frequent stops and tests of
+air-brakes and signals are required. By reason of the exceeding care, no
+serious accident has ever occurred. In ascending three locomotives are
+required for an ordinary train.
+
+There are several splendid resorts on the line of the Canadian railroad.
+Banff and Lake Louise are the resorts on the east side of the Divide. The
+first one west of that point is Field. There, as at all the other resorts,
+the hotels are managed by the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company. They are
+conducted with great skill and elegance, and may well be regarded as a
+tribute to the business ability and artistic taste of the managers.
+
+As we descend the steep grade from Stephen to Field, we catch glimpses of
+peak after peak, range after range, valley after valley, glacier after
+glacier, purple, saffron, red, dazzling white, glistening greens and
+blues. Mt. Stephen lifts its great wall over a mile of almost
+perpendicular height, and nearly opposite is the spire of Mt. Burgess.
+Mountain wonders and attractions of every sort lie in all directions from
+Field. Perhaps the finest is Yoho Valley. There are the Takkakaw Falls,
+twelve hundred feet high. There is the Wapta Glacier, itself a part of a
+prodigious ice-field, known as Wahputekh, lying between the towering
+heights of Mts. Gordon, Balfour, and Tralltinderne.
+
+Leaving Field, the road runs between two chains of mountains, the
+Ottertail on the north and the Van Horne on the south. The former is bold
+and spire-like in outline, with the snow-fields and ice pinnacles of Mt.
+Goodwin closing the vista. The latter is less bold in contour, but has a
+colouring of yellow rock-slopes in beautiful contrast with the rich purple
+of the lower forests.
+
+Passing between those sublime mountain chains, we soon plunge into the
+Wapta canyon, with its perpendicular walls of rock rising hundreds of
+feet on either side. The Wapta is more commonly known as the Kicking
+Horse. It received that name in this wise. The Palliser exploring
+expedition of 1858 had been seeking unsuccessfully a feasible route
+through the Rockies. In the progress of the search, Sir James Hector, then
+in charge of the party, pitched camp on the Wapta. While there a vicious
+horse kicked him with such effect that he was left on the ground
+apparently dead. The three Indians with him had, in fact, dug his grave.
+But while they were conveying him to it, he suddenly came to himself.
+Having recovered, he became curious to follow the stream where he had met
+with the disaster. As a result he discovered the canyon and a short route
+through the main chain. Upon the pass he bestowed the name of "Kicking
+Horse," and this has latterly been bestowed upon the river itself. The
+river is one of the most remarkable of the tributaries of the upper
+Columbia. It drains a cordon of glaciated peaks, from which it bears a
+vast volume of water, foaming and frothing with frequent cataracts down
+the steep descent, from fifty to a hundred feet to the mile.
+
+[Illustration: Natural Bridge Kicking Horse or Wapta River, and Mt.
+Stephen, B. C. Photo. by C. F. Yates.]
+
+[Illustration: Sunrise on Columbia River, near Washougal. (Copyright,
+1902, by Kiser Photograph Co.)]
+
+Forty-five miles west of the Divide we reach Golden on the Columbia. It is
+indeed a thrilling moment to the traveller when he first sets eyes upon
+these head-waters of the River of the West. Golden is a pleasant little
+town, a hundred and fifty miles below the upper Columbia Lake and twelve
+hundred and fifty by the windings of the River from its destination in the
+Pacific.
+
+At Golden we must pause and make ready for our first journey on the River.
+The greater part of the tourist travel passes by Golden, not realising
+that between that pretty town and the lakes lie some of the most charming
+scenes in all the vast play-ground of British Columbia.
+
+We find at Golden several steamboats in command of captains who are very
+princes of good fellows, as Captain Armstrong of the _Ptarmigan_ and
+Captain Blakeney of the _Isabel_, with whom we may journey from Golden to
+Lake Windermere. Over the hundred miles between these two points the
+Columbia is a slack-water stream, having a descent of but fifty feet in
+the distance from the extreme head waters to Golden. Over considerable
+part of this distance the River runs in bayous. These bayous or channels
+wind their serpentine courses through low flats, flooded at high water,
+and exposing fair expanses of vivid green at the subsidence of the waters.
+
+Professor Dawson, the eminent Canadian geologist, made a study of this
+section of the River some years before his death, and as a result
+expressed the opinion that the section of the Columbia above the mouth of
+Blue River, some thirty miles below Golden, formerly united with the
+Kootenai. But owing to some convulsion of nature, the surface was tilted
+just sufficiently to turn the section of the stream from Columbia Lake
+toward the north instead of the south, with the result that we have this
+slack-water system of lagoons and lakes constituting this marvellously
+picturesque division of the River. Now in confirmation of this theory of
+Professor Dawson we have in the relations of the Columbia and Kootenai the
+singular geographical phenomenon already referred to in an earlier
+chapter. The Kootenai runs through "Canal Flats," in which the upper
+Columbia Lake is situated, and comes within a mile of that lake. It is
+nine feet higher than the lake, but there is no high land there, and at
+one time a canal joined the Kootenai with the lake. This canal was wrecked
+in the great flood of 1894, but steamboats had run through it from the
+Kootenai to the Columbia, and it would be entirely feasible to reconstruct
+it. After having thus passed within a mile of each other and evidently
+having once been actually connected, the two rivers part company. The
+Columbia flows north and the Kootenai south. Each makes a vast bend. Again
+they reverse directions, the Columbia flowing south and the Kootenai
+north, and then come together many miles from their point of separation.
+
+Aside from the unique beauty of the lagoons and the grassy shores, the eye
+of the traveller is delighted with the two mountain chains which confront
+each other across those glassy channels throughout the entire stretch from
+Golden to Windermere. On the east side is the main chain of the Rockies,
+and on the west are the Selkirks.
+
+As we proceed on the deep, still stream, gliding from channel to channel,
+we may find ourselves mightily entertained by the conversation of such a
+navigator as Captain Armstrong or Captain Blakeney. For each can command a
+fund of historical and descriptive matter of rare interest.
+
+Captain Armstrong was one of the earliest pilots on the Kootenai. In 1894
+he built the _North Star_ at Jennings, Montana, ran her up the wild stream
+to Canal Flats, thence through the canal to the Columbia lakes, and into
+the River itself. A more exquisite stretch of river navigation than that
+through Columbia Lake, Lake Adela, and Lake Windermere, and from them into
+the lagoons of the River, can scarcely be found or even imagined, and it
+was the lot of the _North Star_ to ply upon that route until her unhappy
+destruction by fire in 1900.
+
+There is little danger of accident on the placid water of the uppermost
+Columbia, but it is far different on the Kootenai. We heard many a tale of
+steamboating adventure from these pilots.
+
+One of these so well illustrates those old-time conditions that we repeat
+here its chief points. Captain Armstrong owned two steamers, the _Ruth_
+and the _Gwendoline_. Both were engaged in transporting freight by way of
+Jennings to Fort Steele and the various mining camps in that district. The
+business was enormously profitable, for the boats received two and one
+half cents a pound. At that particular time there were twenty-six cars on
+the Great Northern Railway awaiting shipments.
+
+From his two steamers Captain Armstrong sometimes made two thousand
+dollars a day in gross receipts. But though profitable, the business was
+also correspondingly risky. The Jennings Canyon, above Bonner's Ferry, is,
+perhaps, the worst piece of water that has ever been navigated on the
+Columbia or its tributaries. A strip of water, foaming-white, down-hill
+almost as on a steep roof, hardly wider than the steamboat, savage-looking
+rocks waiting to catch hold of any unwary craft that might venture
+through,--so forbidding in fact was that route that Captain Armstrong
+found no insurance agent that felt disposed to insure his boats and cargo.
+At last he induced a San Francisco agent to make the trip with him and
+to offer a rate. After sitting in silence on the deck while the steamer
+whirled down the Jennings Canyon, the agent stated that his rate would be
+twenty-five per cent. of the cargo. The daring captain decided to take the
+risk himself. He had made a number of trips with entire success and
+immense profit. But just at the height of the season, when the twenty-six
+cars were on the track and a sack full of gold was waiting for him, the
+captain got into too much of a hurry. He was running the _Gwendoline_; one
+of his best pilots, the _Ruth_. The _Ruth_ was ahead. Both were making
+their best possible time down the canyon to get a cargo. Captain Armstrong,
+at the wheel of the _Gwendoline_, was whizzing down the canyon at a rate
+which made stopping impossible, when to his dismay he saw the _Ruth_ right
+ahead of him in a narrow turn, lying across the channel, wedged in the
+rocks. To stop was impossible. To select any comfortable landing-place was
+equally so. The _Gwendoline_ piled right on top of the _Ruth_. Both were
+total wrecks, without a dollar of insurance. A two-thousand-dollar cargo
+gone in five minutes, to say nothing of boats and business that could not
+be replaced and a fortune within grasp that would never be so near again.
+
+[Illustration: Lake Windermere, Upper Columbia, where David Thompson's
+Fort was Built in 1810. Photo. by W. D. Lyman.]
+
+But such were the risks of steamboating on the Kootenai.
+
+There are two historical notes of special interest to be made in
+connection with the journey to Windermere. One of these is a prehistoric
+drawing in some kind of red pigment on the smooth surface of a rock on the
+upper Columbia Lake. It seems to represent a battle scene, and, though
+rude, denotes some conception of picture art. The Indians think that it
+was made prior to Indian times. Apparently it belongs to the same order of
+pictures as the drawings on the rocks of Lake Chelan and other places in
+the north-west, furnishing a worthy theme for the antiquarian.
+
+The other object of historical interest is the remains of the temporary
+fort built by David Thompson of the North-west Fur Company in 1810.
+Thompson crossed the Rockies in that year in order to descend the Columbia
+and gain possession of its territory for his fur company. He was a brave,
+intelligent, and enterprising man with considerable knowledge of
+astronomy. But he waited one season too long. For, finding it late in the
+year 1810 when he had reached the sources of the Columbia, he decided to
+winter there and descend the River in the spring. He selected a beautiful
+spot capable of defence on all sides on Lake Windermere and there built a
+rude fort, the trench and mound of which still remain. In the spring of
+1811 he went down the river (and this was the first party to traverse the
+entire course of the Columbia) full of hope that he might take possession
+for Great Britain and the North-westers, only to find that the Astor party
+of Americans had preceded them by three months in effecting what might be
+called permanent occupation.
+
+This was one of the important links in the history of the control of the
+North-west. Doubt has been raised as to the authenticity of this
+Windermere location, but there are certainly the remains of mound and
+trench, and the tradition has it that here was the place of the Thompson
+party of 1810, the first place located by white men on the upper Columbia.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Mt. Burgess and Emerald Lake, One of the Sources of the
+Wapta River. B. C. Photo. by C. F. Yates.]
+
+An interesting character lives on the shore of Lake Windermere in the
+person of Baptiste Morigeau. He is a man of sixty-six, the son of a French
+father and Indian mother. The father, Francis Morigeau, was born at Quebec
+in 1797, and came to the upper Columbia region as a free trapper in 1820.
+He trapped up and down the Columbia for many years, selling his catches to
+the Hudson's Bay Company, usually at Fort Colville. Baptiste was born at
+Windermere in 1842. Three years after that the father with his numerous
+family went to Colville. He had a number of horses and cattle, a large
+supply of valuable furs, ammunition, and traps. He located at Colville at
+just the right time. For, having taken up a large body of the rich land in
+that valley, he began raising hay and grain. His stock increased. He was
+surrounded with every species of rude plenty, and just at the most
+profitable time for him the gold discoveries began in 1854, followed the
+next year by the great Indian war. The fat cattle, the horses, the grain,
+hay, and vegetables of the Morigeaus were in great and immediate demand.
+Money came in to them by the handful. Baptiste states that they took in
+one hundred and fifty thousand dollars during the five years of Indian
+wars and settlement. Their lives were often in peril, but with good
+fortune, aided by their own connection with the natives, they escaped any
+serious harm.
+
+On one occasion Indians were about to plunder them of their valuables and
+take possession of the barn where several of the family were thrashing
+grain with flails, when the oldest son, Aleck, suddenly turned his flail
+upon the marauders. So vigorously did he lay about him and so astonished
+were the Indians at the novel assault that they gave way and retreated.
+
+Morigeau told us the interesting fact that there were practically no
+Indians living in the Windermere district until about a century ago. At
+that time some branches of the Shuswaps and of the Kootenais came in.
+Their relations were usually very amicable, but between the Shuswaps and
+the Okanogans was deadly and long-continued enmity. This was ended in a
+curious and interesting manner by the following event. The Shuswaps had
+captured the only daughter of the Okanogan chief. She was led with other
+captives into the Shuswap camp. The boasting warriors were gloating over
+the poor victim, and the squaws were discussing the greatest possible
+indignities and tortures for her, when an aged, white-haired chief got the
+attention of the crowd. He declared that his heart had been opened, and
+that he now saw that torture and death ought to end. He proposed that
+instead of shame and torture they should confer honour on the chieftain's
+child. He said: "I can hear the old chief and his squaw weeping all the
+night for their lost daughter." He then proposed that they adorn the
+captive with flowers, put her in a procession, with all the chiefs loaded
+with presents, and restore her to her father.
+
+The girl meanwhile, who did not understand a word of the language, was
+awaiting torture or death. What was her astonishment to find herself
+decorated with honour, and sent with the gift-laden chiefs toward her
+father's camp. On the next day the mourning chief of the Okanogans and his
+wife, looking from their desolate lodge, saw a large procession
+approaching, and they said: "They are coming to demand a ransom."
+
+[Illustration: Bonnington Falls in Kootenai River, near Nelson. Photo by
+Allan Lean.]
+
+As the procession drew nearer, one of their men said that it looked like a
+woman adorned with flowers in the midst of the men with presents of robes
+and necklaces. Then they cried out: "It is our child, and she is restored
+to us." So they met the procession with rejoicing and heard the speech of
+the old Shuswap chief. And after that there was peace between the Shuswaps
+and the Okanogans.
+
+Having returned from Lake Windermere to Golden by small boat,--one of the
+most charming of all water trips,--we are prepared to make a new start
+down the River.
+
+The River from Golden holds a general north-westerly course to its highest
+northern point in latitude 52 degrees. There having received its northmost
+tributary, Canoe River, a furious mountain stream, it makes a grand wheel
+southward, forming what is known as the Big Bend. This section of the
+River was navigated by the bateaux of the trappers and the canoes of the
+Indians. There are, however, several bad rapids, of which Surprise Rapids,
+Kimbasket Rapids, and Death Rapids, are the worst. These cannot be passed
+by steamboats. The _voyageurs_ seem to have run them sometimes, though
+they ordinarily made portages. A Golden steamboat captain assures us that
+none but fools ever ran Death Rapids,--and they were mostly drowned.
+
+The Canadian Pacific Railroad follows the Columbia from Golden to
+Beavermouth, then turns up the Beaver to cross the Selkirk Mountains. The
+Beaver is a magnificent mountain stream, and from the railroad, high on
+the mountain side, the traveller can at many points look down hundreds of
+feet upon the river. Though the Selkirks are not quite so high as the main
+chain of the Rockies, they are even grander. The snowfall is materially
+greater in the Selkirks, and the glaciers are vast in extent. It is said
+that the snowfall at Glacier averages thirty-five feet during the winter,
+and that it lies from four to eight feet deep from October to April. There
+are thirty immense snowsheds on this section of the railroad.
+
+Glacier is the great resort in the Selkirks. This splendid resort has
+attractions in some respects superior to those of Banff, Lake Louise, or
+Field. It is in the very heart of the Selkirks. The Great Glacier is only
+a mile and a half distant, a glacier which is said to cover an area of two
+hundred square miles; more than all the glaciers of Switzerland combined.
+From the watch tower at Glacier, this mass of ice, twisted and contorted,
+with all the colours of the rainbow playing upon it, is one of those
+visions of elemental force which only great mountains reveal. Like all the
+glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere, this is receding at a rapid rate. A
+record on the rock indicates the point to which the ice attained in July,
+1887, and the ice is now over seven hundred feet distant from that point.
+
+The Asulkan Glacier is a more beautiful sight, as viewed from Abbott
+rampart, than the Great Glacier. Every traveller should climb the trail to
+Abbott in order to get that sight. And with it he will view the twin peaks
+of Castor and Pollux yet farther south, while to the north the splendid
+peaks of Cheops, Hermit, and Cougar dominate the majestic wilderness.
+
+[Illustration: Bridge Creek, a Tributary of Lake Chelan, Wash. Photo. by
+F. N. Kneeland, Northampton, Mass.]
+
+But the most striking single sight is the granite monolith of Sir Donald.
+This is almost a counterpart of the Matterhorn of Switzerland, though not
+so high. It rises in one huge block to a height of 10,808 feet. It has
+been climbed, though this is one of the most daring and difficult of
+climbs. From the dizzy spire there is visible a perfect map of peaks,
+rivers, valleys, and lakes. It is said that a hundred and twenty glaciers
+can be seen.
+
+From Sir Donald and the Great Glacier issues the Illecillewaet River,
+well-named, for this means the "swift flowing." From its source in the
+Great Glacier to its entrance of the Columbia it descends thirty-five
+hundred feet in forty-five miles. It is swift. One of the most interesting
+places on this section of the road is the "Loops," a place where the track
+has to descend five hundred and twenty-two feet in seven miles. To
+accomplish this, it has been carried in a "double S" around the bases of
+Mts. Ross and Bonney. So close are the tracks that the two parts of the
+loop a mile in length are not more than eighty feet apart, one being
+almost perpendicularly above the other. Some miles farther down is the
+Albert Canyon on the Illecillewaet. On this point the distinction has been
+conferred of a complete pause of the train, while from it the passengers
+hasten to a platform to gaze down the perpendicular walls three hundred
+feet to the white torrent tearing its way through the rock.
+
+Soon Revelstoke is reached, and we are again on the navigable waters of
+the Columbia. Every traveller, as he leaves the line of the Canadian
+Pacific Railroad, must pay his tribute of respect to the skill, energy,
+and intelligence with which this superb road is conducted. It has been
+said that English money supplied this road, Scotch energy built it, and
+Irish keenness and adaptability run it. Sir Thomas Shaughnessey, the
+manager, is certainly entitled to the respect and gratitude of thousands
+of tourists.
+
+With the railroad, all tourists will associate the Canadian Park managers.
+The Canadian Government is a singularly intelligent one. It has grasped
+the possibilities in these vast and varied scenic charms, and has used
+exceedingly good judgment in rendering them accessible to the travelling
+public. This entire mountain area bordering the railroad, to an extent of
+five thousand seven hundred and thirty-two square miles, has been set
+apart as a park, in charge of the Department of the Interior. Superb roads
+are constructed in available places, and improvements are continually in
+progress about the springs and falls and lakes and other points of
+interest. The Government, in fact, exercises entire control, but grants
+concessions to the railroad company in the matter of hotels and other
+conveniences.
+
+As we bid good-bye to the Canadian Rockies, we may say that perhaps the
+world offers nowhere else such a sea of mountains, such knots and clusters
+and cordons of elevations, as in this strange and sublime region where the
+Columbia and its tributaries, the Kootenai, the Illecillewaet, the Wapta,
+the Beaver, the Canoe, seem to be playing hide-and-seek with the Thompson
+and the Fraser. There are not less than five distinct snowy ridges between
+the head waters of the Saskatchewan and the Pacific Ocean. The existence
+of this immense watershed of snowy mountains accounts for the vast volume
+of the Columbia. Although not half as long as the Mississippi, the
+Columbia equals it in volume.
+
+[Illustration: Kootenai Lake, from Proctor, B. C. Photo. by Allan Lean.]
+
+Well joined, in truth, are the sublime River and the sublime mountains.
+One cannot fully understand the River unless he has seen its cradle and
+the cradle of its affluents beneath the shadows of the great peaks of
+British Columbia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Lakes from the Arrow Lakes to Chelan
+
+    The Lake Plateau--The Glacial Origin of the Lakes--Down the Arrow
+    Lakes from Revelstoke--The Fine Steamers--Characteristics of the
+    Scenery--By Rail from Robson to Nelson--Agricultural, Mineral, and
+    Lumbering Resources around Nelson--Kootenai Lake and its Charms--On
+    the River from Robson to Kettle Falls--Historic Features around Kettle
+    Falls--On Lakes Coeur d'Alene, Pend Oreille, and Kaniksu in Northern
+    Idaho--From Kettle Falls to Chelan--Appearance of Chelan River--First
+    View of the Lake--Delights of a Boat Ride up the Lake--Comparison of
+    Chelan with other Great Scenes--Storm on the Lake--Goat
+    Mountain--Views from Railroad Creek--The Red Drawings--Rainbow Falls
+    and Stehekin Canyon--The Wrecked Cabin and its Story--Railroad Creek
+    and North Star Park--Cloudy Pass and Glacier Peak.
+
+
+In the progress of our journey down the River on the route of the old-time
+fur brigades, we have passed over what may be considered the first two
+stages of the stream. The first is the lagoon-like expanse of the section
+from Canal Flats to Golden, one hundred and fifty miles. The second is the
+more swift and turbulent part from Golden to Revelstoke, two hundred and
+fifty miles. At the latter place we enter upon a third stage of the River,
+the lake stage.
+
+The region of the lakes constitutes one of the most unique and delightful
+of all parts of the River. Let the reader consult the map and he will find
+an area of probably one hundred thousand square miles in British Columbia,
+Washington, Idaho, and Montana filled with lakes. This lake region
+constitutes a plateau, crossed indeed by mountains and somewhat rough in
+surface, but of a uniform general elevation. It constitutes a sort of
+debatable region between the two great slopes, one from the Rocky summits
+to the lakes and the other from the lakes to tide-water. On those slopes
+the white waters of cataract and rapid are found; on the plateau, the
+deep, still lakes. A glance at the map reveals the fact that the larger of
+these lakes are long and narrow, and lie on north and south lines. A
+journey on them reveals the fact that they are deep and clear and cold.
+Join these facts with the additional one that they are surrounded by snowy
+mountains, and you have no difficulty in deciding their origin. They are
+glacial. At some time in the glacial ages, stupendous ploughshares of ice
+descending from Rockies, Selkirks, Gold Range, Cascades, and Bitter Roots,
+gouged out profound canyons in the rents already wrought by earthquakes,
+and these became the lake beds.
+
+[Illustration: Lower Arrow Lake, B. C. Photo. by Allan Lean, Nelson.]
+
+Each one of the branches of the River in this plateau region has one or
+more of these expansions. On the Columbia itself are the Arrow Lakes.
+Kootenai Lake is an enlargement of the River of the same name. Okanogan
+Lake is likewise an expansion of its river. Christina Lake is the source
+of Kettle River. The Slocan River derives its icy torrents from Slocan
+Lake. Flathead, Kaniksu, and Pend Oreille lakes feed Clark's Fork, now
+more commonly known in its lower section as Pend Oreille River. Coeur
+d'Alene Lake supplies the Spokane River. Chelan pours its cold flood into
+the Columbia through a river of the same sweet sounding name. Wenatchee
+Lake gives life to the Wenatchee River.
+
+We find at Revelstoke that the chief current of tourist travel follows the
+main line of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Nevertheless, there is a
+rapidly increasing movement of travellers on the branch by steamboat over
+the Arrow Lakes and the Kootenai to what is known as the Crow's Nest line
+from Spokane to Calgary, Winnipeg, and other points east.
+
+The Canadian Pacific line has excellent steamers, the _Rossland_, the
+_Kootenai_, the _Kaslo_, the _Kuskanook_, and others of similar grade. The
+journey on the _Rossland_ or _Kootenai_ down the Arrow Lakes from
+Arrowhead to Robson is one to dream of, one to recall in waking hours, and
+even, we almost suspect, in another life. The two lakes together
+constitute one hundred and thirty miles of steamboating, and every mile
+has its special charm. It was the peculiar joy of the _voyageurs_, after
+having toiled over the snowy and wind-swept Athabasca Pass and buffeted
+the foamy descent of Death Rapids, to reach the Arrow Lakes and lazily
+paddle down their tranquil deeps. In fact, pleasant as is our journey on
+the _Rossland_, we would rather reconstruct the bateaux of 1840 and in
+them make the whole long journey to the sea, a thousand miles away.
+
+The traveller learns from the captain, if he can persuade that busy
+personage to indulge in conversation, that the Arrow Lakes derived their
+name from the fact that in early times great bundles of arrows could be
+seen stuck in the clay banks or in the crevices of the rocks at the head
+of the upper lake. The upper Arrow Lake has mountain banks rising
+thousands of feet to the zone of eternal snow. The shores are usually
+precipitous, though it is not uncommon to see smooth slopes furnishing
+timbered margins to enchanting little bays. At various places along the
+shores we see the beginnings of fruit and dairy ranches. It is only within
+four or five years that anything has been done here in the way of
+cultivation. The results thus far attained prove the wonderful
+adaptability of soil and climate to choice fruits. And the
+flowers,--Heaven bless them!--the sweetest and biggest and brightest of
+roses, pinks, sweet peas, larkspurs,--every kind that grows, are seen in
+profusion at almost every point where there has been any cultivation. By a
+little conversation with people at the landings we learn that the
+new-fledged ranches are very profitable. One tells us that he has made a
+net profit of two dollars and twenty-five cents per crate on his
+strawberries, or five hundred dollars an acre.
+
+[Illustration: Bridal Veil Falls on Columbia River. Photo. by E. H.
+Moorehouse.]
+
+Perhaps the most attractive place on the Arrow Lakes is the point where
+the upper lake narrows into the stretch of fifteen miles of river joining
+the two lakes. The mountains on either hand, in great billows of forest
+green and blue, rise ever upward till they break against the eternal
+frost. The shores are clothed in dense forests, and on either hand bold
+promontories enclose sheltered bays, the very beau ideals of camping
+places.
+
+We find the lower Arrow Lake of a gentler type of scenery than the upper.
+The mountains no longer bear snow-peaks and glaciers on their crests, and
+there are no longer to be seen the stupendous rocky walls which in places
+enclose the upper lake. But as a compensation for the loss of this
+pre-eminent grandeur, the lower lake possesses a charm of colouring, both
+of water and shore, a richness of mountain outline and tints, and a
+certain serenity which may well make it an equal of its grander companion.
+
+At the lower end of the Arrow Lakes the steamer stops and transfers her
+freight and passengers to the trains running from Robson to Nelson. This
+is necessitated by the fact that the Kootenai River, which enters the
+Columbia just below Robson, has a descent from Nelson of over two hundred
+feet. The railroad follows the Kootenai, which almost rivals the Columbia
+in magnitude. We pass the Bonnington Falls, the noblest waterfall on the
+entire system of Columbia's tributaries, with the exception of the Great
+Shoshone of the Snake.
+
+Reaching Nelson, the metropolis of this entire lake country, we find a
+bustling, active, well-built little city of seven thousand people. The
+leading industries centring at Nelson are mining and lumbering. It has
+been discovered very recently, however, that the soil and air and climate
+are peculiarly adapted to choice berries and fruits. The shores of the
+river and lake at this point are rugged and rocky, at first thought ill
+adapted to horticulture. But it is well known that rough locations produce
+choicer fruit. Between the boulders or nestling against the hillsides, the
+peach and apple take on an added blush, absorb a more delicate nectar,
+exhale a more exquisite perfume. We are told that during the season of
+1908 there were twenty thousand crates of berries, mainly strawberries,
+shipped from Nelson, at a price of two to three dollars per crate.
+
+In every direction from Nelson is mineral wealth of untold quantity.
+Almost every mineral known, gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, to say
+nothing of every kind of fine building stone, including marble, besides
+coal and iron, is found east, west, north, and south of Nelson. The town
+itself was founded by reason of the Silver King mine, which can be seen
+high up on the mountain side south of the place. The output of these mines
+has been immense. In spite of the comparatively hard times, the output of
+the three districts of the Kootenai, Rossland, and Boundary, was estimated
+at $21,025,500 in 1907. One interesting fact connected with the mining
+industry in the lake country is that at Nelson is located an electric zinc
+smelter, the only one of the kind in the world. Zinc is found in
+association with gold, silver, and copper, and, though valuable, is quite
+an impediment to the mining of the gold and silver. This unique smelter
+works by what is called the Snyder process, an electrical system, which,
+if it accomplishes all that is hoped for, will open every mine on the
+Kootenai.
+
+[Illustration: Shoshone Falls, in Snake River, 212 Feet High. Photo. by W.
+D. Lyman.]
+
+From Nelson we find the way open by fine steamers to all parts of the
+Kootenai. This largest of all the lakes of the Columbia system, containing
+141,120 acres of surface, bears a general resemblance to the Arrow Lakes,
+clear, deep, cold, with lofty mountains on either side and vast stretches
+of purple forests crowding to the very margin of the water. This lake
+consists of three arms, northern, southern, and western. The Kootenai
+River enters by the southern and leaves by the western.
+
+The northern part of the Kootenai region, especially around Kaslo,
+possesses vast mineral wealth. A railroad proceeds from Kaslo to Sandon in
+the heart of the mountains, and to Slocan Lake and thence to Nakusp on
+the upper Arrow Lake. The scenery of Slocan Lake is even more wild and
+rugged than that of the Kootenai. Both abound in fine trout. We saw a lake
+trout at Nelson of a weight of twenty-two pounds. Ducks and geese and swan
+are common on the water, limitless grouse and pheasants are found in the
+woods, while deer, elk, and bear are common in the wild maze of mountains
+and canyons;--a sportsman's paradise.
+
+Tourists taking the route eastward go from Nelson on the elegant steamer
+_Kuskanook_ to Kootenai Landing and there take up again the railway route
+by the Crow's Nest. Such as desire to go to Spokane can leave the line at
+Curzon and go southward to a connection with the Spokane International.
+There is also a rail connection more directly between Nelson and Spokane
+by the Spokane and Northern. This pursues more nearly the course of the
+Columbia River, of which the traveller obtains delightful glimpses at
+intervals. But for ourselves, we would rather go by rowboat from Robson
+down the River over the historical route of the old _voyageurs_. No rail
+route compares with the water.
+
+The River is a superb water-way from Robson, British Columbia, to Kettle
+Falls, Washington, about ninety miles. In fact, the section of the River
+from Death Rapids above Revelstoke to Kettle Falls, including the Arrow
+Lakes, is the longest unbroken stretch of deep, still water on the entire
+River, being about three hundred miles.
+
+Kettle Falls, too, is a historic spot. For here was Fort Colville of the
+Americans and also the old Hudson's Bay post. Here was the greatest
+centring of the fur-trade on the upper River. Here were the strongest of
+all the Catholic missions, and here were the most fertile fields and the
+earliest cultivated of any on the upper River. Here is the Colville Indian
+Reservation, and here for many years the wily and untamable old savage
+Moses herded his bands of "cuitans," watched the incoming whites with
+jealous eye, and, as opportunity offered, made way with such wandering
+prospectors or stockmen as he could find off their guard in rocky glen or
+forest depth. (And none ever knew what became of them.) Here
+Hallakallakeen (Eagle Wing) the great Nez Perce chief, commonly known as
+Joseph, who waged the Wallowa War of 1877 to its bitter conclusion,
+carried on the sad remnant of his days, and not far distant on the wild
+Nespilem, he held his summer camp. In all directions around Colville and
+Kettle Falls, up the Sans Poil and Kettle rivers, are opening mines and
+farms, one of the most promising sections of all the promising State of
+Washington.
+
+[Illustration: Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho. Photo by T. W. Tolman.]
+
+[Illustration: Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Photo. by T. W. Tolman.]
+
+Time forbids us to visit all the lakes in this wonderful lake section. But
+we must see the most important. While at Spokane, we should not fail to
+go, by trolley or train or auto or horseback, to the greatest of all
+Spokane resorts, Coeur d'Alene Lake. Of its beauties and delights, and
+of the "shadowy St. Joe River," and of the canoeing and fishing and
+hunting which may be found there galore, some of our pictures speak. And
+of them any one who has ever been there will also speak in no uncertain
+tone. It seems no whit short of the unpardonable sin to give no longer
+space to that wonderland of lakes, Coeur d'Alene, Pend Oreille, and
+Kaniksu, in Northern Idaho, each the centre of every conceivable scenic
+attraction. In their near vicinity, too, lie the great mines of the
+Coeur d'Alene district, the greatest silver lead mines in the world,
+whose fabulous wealth (forty million dollars a year) has built many a
+stone mansion at Spokane, or sent the prospectors of yesterday to the ends
+of the earth for the pleasure or display of to-day. But the limits of this
+chapter forbid description of these masterpieces. Though each lake has its
+individual character, there is a general similarity. All have the
+characteristics of their common glacial origin and mountainous
+surroundings.
+
+We may therefore make one visit and give descriptions of the one great
+inclusive scene or group of scenes which may be said to express the
+beauty, the sublimity, the wonder of the lakes of the Columbia River. And
+this one typical lake, the all-inclusive, is Chelan, "Beautiful Water."
+
+True to our purpose of following the River from source to sea, we turn
+back now from Spokane in order to go from Kettle Falls to Chelan by boat.
+There are no regular steamboats running from Kettle Falls to Brewster at
+the mouth of the Okanogan, but from the last named point to Wenatchee the
+steamboat is the regular and indeed only means of public travel.
+Throughout the entire course of two hundred miles from Kettle Falls to
+Wenatchee the river is wild and swift. Yet steamers have traversed the
+entire distance, and Government engineers are now engaged in surveys
+looking to improvements such as will make steamboat traffic easy and
+profitable. We pass numberless points of interest, but "Chelan, Chelan,"
+"Beautiful Water, Beautiful Water," is our goal.
+
+[Illustration: The "Shadowy St. Joe," Idaho. Photo. by T. W. Tolman.]
+
+We had thought that the Columbia was clear, but we did not then know what
+clear water really was. When we reach the mouth of Chelan River we know.
+We see a streak of blue cutting right across the impetuous downflow of the
+River. As we push our way into it we discover that it is so clear as to
+make little more obstruction to the view of rocks and fish below than does
+the air itself. This transparent torrent is the outlet of the lake. It is
+only four miles long and descends three hundred and eighty feet in that
+distance. It furnishes one hundred and twenty-five thousand horse-power at
+low water. The canyon, riven and tortured, through which it descends, is a
+fitting approach to the lake, unique Chelan. For having traversed the four
+miles, we find the lake outstretched before us.
+
+At this first view the lake has that look of a serene obliviousness to the
+flight of passing centuries, that impressure of eternity, that belongs to
+all great works of God or man. But majestic as is the view at the lower
+end of the lake, we are not content to remain there. "_Neskika Klatawa
+sahale_," cry we with a single voice, which being interpreted is, "Let us
+go up higher," the motto, by the way, of our Mazama (Mountain-Climbers')
+Club of the Pacific North-west. In skiffs, well-laden with provisions and
+ammunition, we set forth on our sixty-mile pull toward "where the spectral
+glaciers shone."
+
+Delightful, delightful, almost ecstatic in truth, this rocking on the
+glassy swell; this bed of romantic spruce and pine boughs on the beach;
+this star-lit sky which is our only roof; this murmur of cascades falling
+from the bluffs; this trolling for five-pound trout; this disembarking on
+some rocky point and climbing a granite pinnacle from which a perfect maze
+of mountains, streams, and forests, lies extended below; this experience
+of the deadly attack of "buck-ague" which paralyses our arms as some goat
+or deer dashes by; and then the inexpressible delight with which we,
+"stepping down by zigzag paths and juts of pointed rock, came on the
+shining levels of the lake." We do not wish to hurry our oars. We must
+take time to look into the heavenly blue of the waters through the
+foam-streaks left by our advancing prows. We must suspend the oar-dip
+entirely at times while we gaze dizzied, with strained necks, up, up,
+thousands of feet, toward "Death and Morning on the Silverhorns." We must
+study shore and water as we pass slowly by, finding therein ample
+confirmation of the theory of glacial origin.
+
+This is one of the deepest canyons on earth. Not such another furrow has
+Time wrought on the face of the Western Hemisphere, at least. At some
+points the granite walls rise almost vertically six thousand feet from the
+water's edge. Here, too, soundings of seventeen hundred feet have been
+necessary to touch bottom. Over a mile and a half of verticality! This
+surpasses in depth Yosemite, Yellowstone, Columbia, or even Colorado
+Canyon. As compared with those more familiar wonders, Chelan lacks the
+incomparable symmetry and completeness of Yosemite; it has not such a
+multitude of waterfalls and groups of "castled crags" as are seen within
+the basaltic gates of the Columbia; it does not display that variety of
+colouring, especially of the lighter and warmer hues, which astonishes the
+beholder of the Colorado or the Yellowstone, and it has no especially
+curious feature like the geysers of the last; but for immensity, for a
+certain chaotic sublimity, for the rich and sombre grandeur of the purple
+and garnet, dusky, and indigo-tinted shore views, Chelan surpasses any of
+the others, while in its water views,--such colourings and such blendings,
+light-green, ultramarine, lapis lazuli, violet, indigo, almost
+black,--such light and shade, "sea of glass mingled with fire," where
+every cloud in the changing sky and all the untold majesty of the hills
+find their perfect mirror, all hues and forms, a kaleidoscope of earth and
+heaven, beyond imagination to conceive or pen to describe or brush to
+portray,--in all this, Chelan is without a rival.
+
+[Illustration: On the Coeur d' Alene River, Idaho. Photo. by T. W.
+Tolman.]
+
+As we round a shaggy promontory, there the snow-peaks stand in battle
+array, azure, purple, amethystine, with lines and masses of glistening
+white, flushed on their topmost pinnacles with rosy light from the
+westering sun, solemn, solitary, very oracles of mountain revelation, so
+grand, so beautiful, so true, looking as though they had been there
+forever waiting for an interpreter,--before that scene we bow the head and
+make involuntary obeisance, the homage of the true in man to the true in
+nature, that is, the recognition of a common brotherhood in one divine
+origin.
+
+Not of every scene on this lake of wonders can we speak. Yet every mile
+brought its special revelation. Sometimes we found the lake in storms. As
+we rowed in what seemed a summer calm, Winter from his throne eight
+thousand feet above sent forth his cloud-legions, which, like the "thunder
+birds" of Indian story, spread their wings and came down. The thunder
+clash went echoing in long reverberations "from peak to peak, the
+rattling crags among." "If a squall ever strikes you, put for the first
+crack in the bank that you see," had been the parting injunction of the
+lake sailors when we started on our cruise. We observed the warning and
+made the best possible time to a cranny in the ill-omened "Windy Cape."
+And there we lay till morning, when the tumult fell as suddenly as it
+rose, and lake and sky smiled as serenely at each other as ever.
+
+The chief point on the lake, for photographing, hunting, fishing, and
+climbing, is Railroad Creek, fifty miles up the lake. Railroad Creek comes
+from the "Roof of the World," having its source in the very heart of a
+great group of glaciers. It descends probably six thousand feet in
+twenty-five miles. It is swift! The fury with which it hurls logs and even
+boulders down its cataract bed is fairly appalling. The very earth quivers
+beneath its flail-like strokes.
+
+Nowhere, perhaps, can one see more work done by rivers than here. The
+entire course of one of these rivers can be traced from the lake. Rising
+in a snow bank six thousand feet above, its route marked by a streak of
+foam, sometimes falling in spray hundreds of feet, then hiding behind a
+cliff, to burst forth in snow-white "chute," augmented by similar streams
+from lateral canyons, it plunges into the lake with a perfect delirium of
+motion. So great is the erosion that were not the lake of enormous depth,
+it would soon be filled with the jetsam and flotsam of the hills.
+
+The sunset effects looking up the lake from Railroad Creek are marvellous,
+though, alas, the cool black and white of the photograph cannot preserve
+the wealth of colouring, "the illumination of all gems," which for a few
+transcendent moments fills the mighty canyon "bank-full" with such radiance
+that one might think it the grand gathering place of all the rainbows of
+earth. The light greens and blues of the shallower water shade into
+deepest indigo toward the centre, reflecting the ever-changing hues of the
+canyon walls, a deep, rich, and sombre purple on the shaded side, while on
+the sun-lit side are poured forth upon the shaggy mountain slopes perfect
+inundations of orange, carmine, and saffron. From these floods of glory
+there falls into the lake a seeming rain of pearls and rubies, barred with
+stripes of gold and crimson. But the sun drops lower and the splendour
+fades, the conflagration of the sky is quenched, and it seems as though
+ten thousand ships, "all decked with funeral scarfs from stem to stern,"
+were putting out from the glooming western shores, strewing darkness as
+they move,--and night is at hand.
+
+[Illustration: Gorge of Chelan River, the Outlet of Lake Chelan. Photo. by
+T. W. Tolman, Spokane.]
+
+Like all travellers to Lake Chelan, we must make a journey to the head of
+the lake, to the Stehekin River, and to Rainbow Falls. The view up the
+canyon of the Stehekin is the crowning glory of this panorama of
+sublimities. A forest of almost tropical luxuriance covers the morass
+through which the impetuous river makes its way. On either side tower the
+canyon walls, capped with snow. The background consists of glittering
+pinnacles of some of the Glacier Range. Majesty, might, elemental force,
+eternity,--such are the only words to express the emotions excited by this
+scene.
+
+One curious thing to be seen at the mouth of the Stehekin, and at several
+other places on the lake is a series of rude drawings on the smooth,
+white surface of the granite bluff, the work of some prehistoric artist,
+unknown to the Indians, and of so ancient date that the lake is now twenty
+feet below their level. The drawings are of men, goats, tents, and trees,
+and are in strong red colours, of some very enduring nature. One is
+ashamed to record that alleged human beings in the form of white tourists
+have used these curious relics of bygone days as targets to shoot at from
+their boats, and have ruined some of the finest. Also that some vandal has
+desecrated the place by painting a glaring advertisement of his ferry
+underneath.
+
+Although it may well seem to the tourist who has attained the head of Lake
+Chelan that nature has reached her acme of grandeur, and that it would tax
+his powers of belief to be informed that there is grander yet, we shall
+run the risk of saying just that, and bid him join us on side journeys up
+the mighty canyons of the Stehekin River and Railroad Creek. Lake Chelan
+being, as already indicated, in the very heart of the Cascade Mountains,
+and these mountains here attaining an average elevation of seven or eight
+thousand feet, with dozens of peaks of ten thousand or more, and the
+countless impetuous streams from those snowy heights having cut their way
+deep down toward the lake level, it follows as a matter of course that the
+entire Chelan region, for an area of probably ten thousand square miles,
+is perfectly gridironed with canyons. Many of them have never been explored
+or even entered. In them are myriads of lakes, waterfalls, parks,
+glaciers, and, in fact, every species of mountain attraction. There is no
+question that within this vast cordon of mountains there are more
+glaciers than in all the rest of the United States combined, and, with the
+exception of the Sierras and the Canadian Rockies, there is certainly no
+other region on this continent that can for a moment enter into
+competition with it. Travellers have assured the author that the Alps in
+no respect except historical association, surpass, and some say, do not
+equal this crowning glory of our great North-west State.
+
+[Illustration: Head of Lake Chelan--Looking up Stehekin Canyon. Photo. by
+W. D. Lyman.]
+
+Amid the bewildering profusion of great canyons radiating from the lake,
+the two most accessible are those of the Stehekin River and Railroad
+Creek. The former enters the head of the lake, after a course of probably
+fifty miles from Skagit Pass. To ascend this canyon we must commit our
+lives and fortunes to cayuse ponies and a mountain trail, which, though
+good enough to the initiated, is a terror to the "tenderfoot."
+
+Four miles up the Stehekin we reach Rainbow Falls, heralded by distant
+gusts and eddies of mist, which at first seem to be from woods on fire.
+But a dull roar, a harsh rumble, then a lighter splash,--and we see that
+what at first had seemed smoke eddying out of the canyon wall is the mist
+driven before the gusts created by the falling torrents. With a few more
+hurried steps we find ourselves before a fall three hundred and fifty feet
+high. Its clouds of spray swirl like a thunder-shower, drenching the rocks
+and trees far around. Picking our way amid the pelting mist to the top of
+a slippery hillock from which we can look right down into the very heart
+of the fall, we see, swinging against the mist, a perfect rainbow, a
+complete double circle, a blaze of lustre. The thrilling roar deepens as
+we hang over the slippery verge, and sounds like voices, trampling of
+armies, clatter of innumerable hoofs, rattling of artillery, all the
+grandeur and frenzy of conflict, seem to rise from that wild gorge. Now
+the mist eddies forth and blurs the vision, and then falls back, and that
+dazzling bow hangs there unmarred. The bridge of Iris or Heimdall, we
+say,--but no; it is no more a bridge, it is a perfect circle, the symbol
+of eternity. The symbol also of peace, for eternity is peace. That
+mist-hung bow becomes to us an emblem of the harmony of all jarring sounds
+and discordant forces. And so with that bow of peace swaying behind us,
+and the deep thunder fading in musical diminuendo, we pass on to the next
+wonder; and this is not far, for every mile brings its special revelation.
+
+Time forbids that we pause for more than one added scene on the Stehekin,
+and this is the Horseshoe Basin, thirty miles up the river. This is in the
+upper canyon. Imagine yourself perched upon a granite pinnacle, looking
+possibly a little anxiously for bear in the thick copses at its bases, for
+this is said to be the greatest bear region in the country, but soon
+lifting your eyes to the heights on either side. Six thousand feet deep is
+that stupendous gorge. On the south side you see the "castled crags,"
+glacier-crested, while on the north, Horseshoe Basin stands revealed. A
+long line of dark-red minarets, at whose foot stretches two miles of
+glistening and twisted ice, then below that a great terrace, vivid green
+with spring foliage, and over it falling a perfect symposium of
+waterfalls, if we may be allowed such an expression. Twenty-one falls and
+cataracts all in one view. They vary in descent from two hundred to two
+thousand feet. Joining at the foot of the terrace in one foaming torrent
+the waters of the Basin plunge in one fall of two hundred feet, thence
+pass under a snow tunnel and down a rocky chute swept clean by the flood
+to augment the already raging waters of the Stehekin. The Horseshoe Basin,
+though not grander, not so sublimely terrible, in fact, as some other
+scenes in the canyon, has that indescribable look of perfectness which
+belongs to the immortal works of nature and art. It has a symmetry of form
+and colour beyond any other in the entire region. The dark-red minarets
+which form the outer escarpment, ten thousand feet above sea-level, form a
+marvellous contrast and yet harmony with the green and blue and white of
+the glacier and the snow-field, and this in turn is margined with the
+deep-green and olive hues of the lower terrace, while joining and unifying
+all is the flashing and opalescent splendour of the cataracts.
+
+[Illustration: Cascade Pass at Head of Stehekin River, Wash. Photo. by T.
+W. Tolman, Spokane.]
+
+At the mouth of the Horseshoe Creek, lodged on a little rocky island, is a
+shattered cabin. We camp near this, and while we are engaged in preparing
+an appetising meal of fish and venison, a grizzled prospector appears
+coming down the trail. After the manner of the mountains, he makes himself
+at home and camps with us for the night. In the course of his conversation
+he narrates many stories of this wild region and of the prospecting and
+hunting adventures that have happened in it. Finally he tells us the story
+of the lost cabin, a story that certainly contains all the elements of a
+romance. It appears that some years ago two young fellows from the East,
+cousins, had come to the Stehekin to prospect. The old man who told us the
+story was then the only prospector in the canyon, and he soon made friends
+with the two adventurers. From broken pieces of conversation and finally
+some confidences on the part of one of the boys, he learned something of
+their story. They had been bosom friends all their lives, but had fallen
+in love with the same girl. The poor girl, not knowing which she did like
+best, told them that the only thing was for both to leave her for two
+years, and at the end of the time she would decide in favour of the one
+that had showed himself the braver and more successful man. Each kept his
+destination a perfect secret, but to their astonishment, within a month
+after, they found each other in Spokane. They concluded that it was the
+appointment of fate, and so went together to the wild country of Chelan,
+to seek a fortune.
+
+After they had been there a short time they found a mutual distrust
+springing up, and finally, by the advice of the old man, they agreed to
+separate. George was to stay below. He was the more sullen and selfish of
+the two, and it was due to him that they had fallen out. Harry was of a
+frank and generous nature, and when it became evident that they must part
+he insisted that he should help build a cabin for George. And the cabin
+that they built was the very one that we now saw lodged against the rocks.
+Harry went up the canyon toward the Skagit Pass, and there in the lonely
+grandeur of the glaciers he plied his pick and shovel.
+
+A few months later there came a mighty Chinook, the warm wind of the
+Cascades, which strips the peaks of snow within a day, transforms the
+creeks into raging torrents, and sends floods down every dry gulch. The
+night after the wind began to blow the old miner came to George's cabin,
+and in the intense darkness of the cloudy night they listened to the
+hurtling of the storm and the roar of the rapidly growing river. About
+midnight there came suddenly a succession of rifle shots near at hand, and
+in a few minutes a thunder and roar of water beyond anything that they had
+heard. Rushing out they saw that the water was already surrounding the
+cabin and they had to run in the darkness for their lives. Stumbling among
+the rocks they reached at last land high enough for safety, while the
+floods went tearing by. With the first light they looked out to see that
+the cabin had gone adrift, but sadder to tell, they soon found Harry,
+mangled, tortured, at the point of death, just strong enough to tell them
+that from his situation he had seen that a fearful flood was coming and he
+was trying to save George. But he had fallen in the darkness and crashed
+upon the rocks, and even in his suffering he had fired his rifle as a
+warning, hoping that it might be heard and save, and so it did. And the
+faithful fellow died content. "We tell the tale as it was told us." But
+the poor old wreck of a cabin took on something of a new significance as
+it leaned up against the rocks, while the restless river sobbed and
+frothed about it.
+
+[Illustration: Doubtful Lake, Cascade Range, Washington, near Lake Chelan.
+Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.]
+
+There is great strife among the Chelan people as to which is the grander
+section, the Stehekin or Railroad Creek. As a matter of fact, both are so
+superlatively magnificent that whichever place one is in, that he thinks
+the finer. But there is one feature of the case, and this is that the
+grandest part of Railroad Creek is seldom visited. Few have ever been to
+Glacier Lake, North Star Park, and Cloudy Pass, at the extreme head of
+the creek, and these are the central features of the scenery. They are
+about twenty-five miles from Lake Chelan, and the road and trail are
+mainly good, so that the journey to the head of the creek and return can
+be made very comfortably in four days.
+
+Neither words nor pictures are adequate to convey any true conception of
+Glacier Lake and its surroundings. Imagine a park of four or five thousand
+acres, set with grass and flowers, filled with ice-cold streams of water
+clear as crystal, and dotted here and there with trees of the most
+exquisite beauty. On every side except the one down which the creek
+descends, stupendous, glacier-crowned, and pinnacled peaks penetrate the
+blue-black sky at an elevation of ten or eleven thousand feet. At the
+south side of the park lies Glacier Lake, a mile long and half as wide,
+margined with vivid grass, brilliant flowers, and trees of the Alpine
+type, clear as crystal, unless darkened by some sudden scud from the
+heights. At the southern end of the lake is a bold bluff of five hundred
+feet, over which fall the waters of Railroad Creek, a white band across
+the darkness of the bluff. Above may be seen the source of this stream. It
+issues from a smaller lake, which lies in the very end of a vast glacier,
+a mass of ice two miles wide and about four miles long.
+
+Passing west of Glacier Lake through the enchanted North Star Park, a
+veritable land of Beulah (at least when the sun is shining), we climb a
+thousand or twelve hundred feet higher, and find ourselves at one of those
+thrilling points in the mountains, a "divide." We are on the crest of the
+Cascade Mountains. To the east the water flows to Lake Chelan, thence to
+the Columbia, and thence to the Pacific by a journey of six hundred miles.
+To the west the water descends through the Sauk and the Skagit to Puget
+Sound, only a hundred and fifty miles away. This pass is almost always
+wrapped in clouds, and it is fittingly known as Cloudy Pass. The masses of
+warm vapour rising from the Pacific are hurled against the icy crowns of
+Glacier Peak, Mt. Nixon, Mt. Le Conte, North Star Peak, Bonanza Peak, and
+the rest of the wintry brotherhood, most not yet even named, and make of
+them a genuine "_patriam nimborum_," in Virgil's phrase.
+
+[Illustration: Horseshoe Basin through a Rock Gap, Stehekin Canyon. Photo.
+by T. W. Tolman.]
+
+This is the breeding place of tempests. We had just reached the pass on
+one occasion, with a smiling sky below, and were just getting our cameras
+ready to catch the westward maze of peaks, when almost instantly there
+began to wheel and whirl above us great cloud-masses, seemingly from
+nowhere, formed right there, in fact, and before we had time to think, we
+were wrapped in a furious blizzard. With difficulty, benumbed, drenched,
+and exhausted, we managed to pick our way to camp, four miles below. This
+was in the early part of August. To be caught in a Chelan snowstorm is a
+serious matter at any time, and later in the year, may be all a man's life
+is worth.
+
+But the greatest sight, the crowning feature, of all this panorama of
+sublimities is Glacier Peak seen from Cloudy Pass. This is pre-eminently
+the storm-king, the "Cloud-Compeller" (_Nephelegereta_, in the sounding
+word of Homer), and rarely can one catch an unobstructed view of its
+glistening cone. After much watching and waiting we caught the base and
+part of the double crown of the mighty mass. Glacier Peak is the "Great
+Unknown" among our Washington peaks. Every one has heard of Rainier, most
+people know of Adams, St. Helens, Baker, and Stewart, but Glacier Peak,
+alone in its solitary grandeur, not visible from the cities or routes of
+travel, is little known even to the people of the State. As its name
+denotes, it is the centre of a vast glacial system. To any tourist with a
+taste for adventure, Glacier Peak affords the finest field, while it
+offers an almost untouched mark for the scientist.
+
+[Illustration: Lake Chelan. Photo. by W. D. Lyman.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+In the Land of Wheat-field, Orchard, and Garden
+
+    Increasing Population and Cultivation as we go South--Chelan and
+    Wenatchee Orchards--The Wheat-plains East of Wenatchee to
+    Spokane--Spokane, the Metropolis of the Inland Empire--The Falls and
+    their Power--Interesting Points in and around Spokane--The Palouse
+    Farming Country--Snake River and its Orchards--Vast Irrigating
+    Enterprises of the Upper Snake--Shoshone Falls--Walla Walla--Waiilatpu
+    and Whitman Monument--Whitman College--Pendleton and its Wheat-fields
+    and Historical Characters--Wallowa Lake--From Wenatchee to Priest
+    Rapids--Origin of Name of Priest Rapids--Irrigating Enterprises below
+    Priest Rapids--By Steamboat from Priest Rapids to Pasco--The Yakima
+    Valley, its Fruits and Towns--Pasco and Kennewick and the Meeting of
+    the Waters--Prospects of the Future for the Irrigable Country--From
+    Pasco to Celilo--The Umatilla Palisades--Umatilla Rapids--Tumwater
+    Falls--The Canal and Locks at Celilo--What Will be Accomplished by
+    them for the Inland Empire--The Dalles--Its Historic Interest--Its
+    Wool Business, its Horticultural and Agricultural Resources, its
+    Scenery.
+
+
+Our journey on the River thus far has been mainly in those sections where
+scenery is the greatest product, and where the country, scantily
+inhabited, has almost as primitive an appearance as when the gay songs of
+the _voyageurs_ raised the echoes against the rock-walls of the lakes,
+while paddles and bateau-prows started correspondent ripples on the clear
+surface.
+
+But as we proceed southward into the State of Washington, we find more
+and more evidences of cultivation and inhabitancy. At the mouths of the
+streams and on the frequent "benches" and islands, orchards and gardens
+attest the enterprise and patience of the settlers. Around the lower end
+of Lake Chelan the big red apple, luscious peaches, plethoric pears, huge
+bunches of grapes, like the grapes of Eschol, make a picture of
+fruitfulness and delight. When we reach Wenatchee on the Columbia,--a
+river, a lake, and a town of the same name, meaning in the native tongue
+the "butterfly,"--we find ourselves in the uppermost of those belts of
+fruit land which have made the River so famous. As we stroll through these
+model orchards and vines and berry patches and gardens, and see the
+wonders wrought on the arid soil by the life-giving waters of the
+Wenatchee, we are almost ready to join the throng that are continually
+accepting the invitation to "be independent on ten acres of land and find
+health, wealth, and happiness in Wenatchee." In truth, these irrigated
+lands are marvels of productiveness. The valley of the Wenatchee is small,
+and not over twelve thousand acres are yet in productive bearing; but in
+1907 not less than five hundred carloads of fruit and vegetables were
+shipped.
+
+Like all the irrigated regions, Wenatchee is a place of pleasant homes,
+good schools and social advantages, and all the accompaniments of the
+finest type of genuine, whole-souled, ambitious Americanism. At Wenatchee
+we are on the main line of the Great Northern Railroad, and by it we can
+go west through the Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound, or east to Spokane.
+We must return again to Wenatchee in order to resume our journey down
+the River, but we will first turn eastward and make a tour of the great
+"Inland Empire" of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon.
+
+[Illustration: A Harvest Outfit, Dayton, Wash. _Sunset Magazine._]
+
+[Illustration: A Combined Harvester, near Walla Walla. Photo. by W. D.
+Chapman.]
+
+One must necessarily visit Spokane on a journey through the great wheat
+country. Spokane, the metropolis and the pride of Eastern Washington, is a
+wonder to the Eastern tourist. Such a city, over one hundred thousand
+people, with costly brick and stone buildings, four, six, ten stories
+high, impressive public buildings, schools, churches, hotels, hundred-foot
+avenues well-paved, private dwellings of architectural excellence,--and
+hardly a soul there thirty years ago!
+
+A grand spectacle the falls offered the eye in old Spokane, but now, alas,
+so cribbed and cabined is the noble stream by the march of industrial and
+electrical power that its wild energy is well-nigh gone except at the
+highest water. The total fall in the Spokane River is one hundred and
+forty-six feet, and the horse-power capacity at low water is forty
+thousand, at high water over half a million.
+
+Many points of interest must be hastily passed. The author feels great
+reluctance to omit a visit to the State College of Washington at Pullman,
+and the University of Idaho at Moscow. There are also historic spots, as
+one at Rosalia where a monument has recently been erected in commemoration
+of the Steptoe defeat in 1858, and the site of the first church in Eastern
+Washington on Walker's Prairie, where Eells and Walker started a mission
+for the Spokane Indians in 1838. There is also at the junction of the
+Spokane and Little Spokane, the site of Spokane House, a post of the
+Hudson's Bay Company, started in 1811. One might also well desire to visit
+the location of the old Spokane Bridge, where Colonel Wright crushed
+forever the pride and power of the Spokanes by killing eight hundred of
+their choicest horses.
+
+On whatever side viewed, either past or present, or in the forecast of the
+future, Spokane is worthy of careful study. Its extensive railroad system
+and its network of electric lines reaching the many lakes, garden and
+fruit tracts, and rapidly developing suburbs, are concentrating the
+interests of a vast and wealthy region. But there are other cities to see
+and other boomers to hear and other bright futures to forecast, and so we
+turn our faces southward on the line of the O. R. & N. Railway, passing
+through vale after vale between the swelling prairies, with wheat, wheat,
+wheat, oats, oats, oats, hay, hay, hay, cattle, horses, hogs, apple trees,
+and sugar beets, elegant farmhouses on the knolls and spacious barns in
+the hollows,--the great Palouse farming country, one of the most
+productive in the world. Whitman County has produced eight million bushels
+of wheat in a season, besides vast quantities of other products.
+
+A hundred and forty miles from Spokane the great wheat plateau is broken
+by the profound abyss of Snake River. Dark, turbid, sullen, not so
+beautiful as the northern branches flowing out of the lakes, this largest
+of all the tributaries of the River goes on its swift and treacherous
+course to the union with the Columbia. Snake River is famous for its
+orchards. Almota, Penewawa, Alpowa, Kelly's Bar, Clarkston, Asotin, are
+the most prominent among many points where the cherries, peaches,
+nectarines, apricots, berries, grapes, go out by the carload and
+steamerload, earlier than anywhere else except on the banks of the
+Columbia itself, to all parts of the West and even at times to Chicago and
+New York. The region of these enormously productive fruit ranches is a
+narrow ribbon of fertile land at the bottom of a canyon fifteen hundred
+feet deep. Hot? Yes, hot! They say the mercury sometimes boils out of the
+top of the thermometer. But heat and water and good soil make the rich
+juice and bright cheeks of the peach and nectarine. Hundreds of miles up
+Snake River in the wide expanses of Southern Idaho the waters are being
+diverted for some of the largest irrigation enterprises on earth. There
+the Twin Falls canal, one hundred feet wide and deep enough for a
+steamboat, conveys the water to two hundred and eighty thousand acres of
+land. The Minidoka canal covers almost as much. That part of the Snake
+River Valley, three hundred miles long by fifty miles wide, will ere long
+count its inhabitants by the million.
+
+[Illustration: Inland Empire System's Power Plant, near Spokane, 20,000
+Horse-Power. Photo. by T. W. Tolman.]
+
+[Illustration: Lower Spokane Falls. Photo. by T. W. Tolman.]
+
+No one could consider that he had really seen Snake River unless he had
+visited the Great Shoshone Falls, or "Pahchulaka." This sublime
+manifestation of nature's power is about forty miles from the town of
+Shoshone on the Oregon Short Line. The total descent is nearly three
+hundred feet, of which eighty consists of cataracts and chutes broken by
+rocky islands, while the entire stream unites in the one final plunge of
+two hundred and twelve feet. It is ten hundred and fifty feet wide, and
+the walls of basaltic rock rise perpendicularly a thousand feet. Niagara
+is the only waterfall on the American continent that can be compared with
+Shoshone. Niagara is much wider but not so high. Its banks are tame,
+while those of Shoshone are wildly sublime.
+
+The spectres of history rise up at every stage of a journey along Snake
+River. But we cannot pause. We pass on from the crossing of Snake River
+and soon find ourselves approaching Walla Walla. This is the most historic
+city of the Inland Empire and the oldest of the entire State of
+Washington, with the exception of Vancouver. The pleasant-sounding name
+signifies in the native tongue "Many Waters," though more literally, as
+the author has been told by an old Cayuse Indian, "Place where four creeks
+meet." The city of Walla Walla is thirty-two miles from the Columbia River
+in the midst of a broad and fertile valley, through which dozens of clear
+rivulets issuing from springs make their way through the birches and
+cottonwoods. The warm climate, rich soil, and abundant water, with
+multitudes of trees, give the "Garden City" an appearance of almost
+tropical luxuriance. On all sides for many miles stretch the wheat-fields,
+orchards, gardens, and alfalfa-fields. It is a land of plenty. It is
+commonly said that Walla Walla has more automobiles, more bicycles, more
+pianos, more flowers, and more pretty girls in proportion to population,
+than any other town in the North-west.
+
+The special historic interest of Walla Walla is found in the fact that it
+was the location of the Whitman Mission and that the Whitman massacre took
+place at the Mission Station, Waiilatpu, six miles from the city. That
+spot is now marked with a marble crypt in which the bones of the martyrs
+rest, and a plain but imposing granite shaft stands upon the crest of the
+hill just above.
+
+[Illustration: Canyon of the Stehekin, near Lake Chelan. Photo. by T. W.
+Tolman.]
+
+A more living monument to the missionary is found in Whitman College. This
+institution, planned on the model of Amherst, Yale, and Williams, though
+co-educational, was founded by Rev. Cushing Eells in 1859 as an academy.
+It was not till 1883 that college work was undertaken. During that period
+the self-denying missionary and his family supported the infant
+institution by selling the products of their farm and devoting to it all
+except what was absolutely necessary for their own support. During years
+of slow, patient growth under very discouraging conditions, Whitman
+College has made friends East and West, and within the last few years it
+has become equipped with buildings and general facilities of high grade.
+An effort is now in progress, apparently sure of fulfilment, to raise two
+million dollars for buildings and general endowment. Walla Walla is
+becoming peculiarly known as the educational centre and the home city of
+the Inland Empire.
+
+From Walla Walla we take a flying trip through the continued wheat belt on
+the Umatilla and its branches in Northern Oregon, a region similar to that
+around Walla Walla, rich and fruitful. Of this part of Oregon, Pendleton
+on the Umatilla is the metropolis. The Umatilla Indian Reservation, one of
+the most important in the history of this country, adjoins it. One of the
+most interesting persons in North-west history, now deceased, lived at
+Pendleton many years, Dr. William C. McKay, the son of Thomas McKay, and
+grandson of Alexander McKay, the last named being that one of the Astor
+company who lost his life on the _Tonquin_. Dr. William McKay was a
+three-quarter-blood Indian, but he was well educated and one of the most
+interesting men in our history. Another noted man, still living in the
+prime of life, is Major Lee Moorehouse, famous in earlier times as an
+Indian fighter and agent, and more recently as one of the most successful
+students and photographers of Indian life. Some of his pictures have
+gained national fame, and the publishers of this volume are indebted to
+his courtesy for their appearance here. Another interesting fact in
+connection with Pendleton is that here the Pendleton Indian robes and
+blankets are manufactured, and these have borne the name of their home
+place to all parts of the United States and even the world.
+
+While in this part of Oregon we must take advantage of the opportunity to
+visit Lake Wallowa, with its tragic and pathetic memories of Indian war
+and early settlement and with its glorious scenery, almost equal to that
+of Chelan. Right over the lake, deep-set in precipitous mountain walls,
+towers the battlemented crest of Eagle Cap, which the people of Wallowa
+now declare to be the highest mountain in Oregon, 12,000 feet in
+elevation. Wallowa Lake is the veritable jewel of the Blue Mountains, a
+chain which, while not in general equal to the Cascades for height,
+grandeur, and variety, possesses in the Wallowa Basin a group of
+attractions not surpassed in any part of the North-west.
+
+[Illustration: Memorial Building, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
+Photo. by W. D. Chapman.]
+
+And now we must retrace our course after this long detour through the
+productive land bordering the tributaries of the River or we can in
+imagination fly on the wings of the south wind, which almost always blows
+across the Inland Empire, and find ourselves again at Wenatchee in order
+to resume our interrupted journey down the River. From Wenatchee to the
+foot of Priest Rapids, about sixty miles, there is no regular steamboat
+communication. We can, however, use the same means of transportation that
+we have hitherto used so liberally, imagination, and upon that airy and
+convenient ship we can descend the swift and tortuous stream. The fur
+brigades used to trust themselves to the skill of their paddles and boldly
+descend the rapids, seldom meeting with disaster. There are three
+principal rapids in this section of the River, Rock Island, Cabinet, and
+Priest. In the first the River is very narrow and split in sunder by
+ragged pinnacles of basaltic rock. At first observation it looks a
+reckless thing to push a boat out into the white water whirling through
+these fantastic points of rock. Yet a bateau or canoe skilfully handled
+will plunge like a race-horse down the foaming stretch, and emerge below
+bow down with little water aboard and inmates intact. Steamboats have both
+descended and ascended this rapid, though it is considered a somewhat
+dangerous performance. Cabinet Rapids are less picturesque and interesting
+than Rock Island, but they offer even more serious obstacles to
+navigation, the channel being narrow and the water shallow. The river has
+cut this part of its course through the great plateau, and its banks on
+either side are rocky walls a thousand feet high, with occasional sandy
+stretches, sad, barren, and monotonous. There is, in fact, not so much to
+catch the eye or enlist the interest of the tourist (if he were here) in
+this dismal expanse of rock and sand as there is either above or below. It
+is practically uninhabited. But as we proceed upon our way the banks fall
+away, wider expanses of land appear, and we discover an occasional band
+of cattle or a settler's hut on the generally bare, brown prairie. We are
+now approaching the longest rapid and the most serious impediment to
+navigation in the whole course of the River from Kettle Falls to Tumwater
+Falls. This is Priest Rapids. It is ten miles in length and represents a
+descent in the River of seventy feet. It would certainly be impossible of
+navigation by steamboats, were it not that the descent is distributed
+quite uniformly over the ten miles and the River in general is quite
+straight and with a fair depth of water throughout. The old _voyageurs_
+had little difficulty in racing down, and they seem to have usually
+ascended by _cordelling_ their bateaux beside the rocks, and at some
+especially difficult places by lightening the load and carrying around.
+Steamers have both ascended and descended, but it is so slow and tedious
+(on one occasion requiring a steamer three days to ascend the ten miles)
+that it cannot be considered commercially navigable. It will doubtless
+become necessary to construct a canal and locks at this point to render
+the River continuously and profitably navigable.
+
+Alexander Ross, in his _Adventures on the Columbia_, tells us how Priest
+Rapids came to be named. The first expedition of the Pacific Fur Company,
+of which Ross was a member, was making its way from Astoria up the River
+in 1811, and had reached the lower end of this fall. While reconnoitring
+and making preparations for proceeding, a large body of Indians gathered,
+watching operations with great interest. Among them was a fantastically
+dressed individual, with many feathers on his head, who was going
+through some kind of a performance which the explorers conceived to have
+a religious significance. Considering him a priest, they named the rapids
+thus.
+
+[Illustration: Starting the Ploughs in the Wheat Land, Walla Walla, Wash.
+Photo. by W. D. Chapman, Walla Walla.]
+
+The country around Priest Rapids is barren and unpromising in its natural
+state, but just below the foot of the rapids is one of the most
+interesting irrigation projects in the State. Along the west side of the
+River for twenty-five miles extends a belt of the most fertile land. An
+immense pumping plant run by electricity, which in turn is generated by
+the current, has been put in at the foot of the rapids. By this the water
+is conducted over the twenty thousand or more acres of land available, and
+it is the expectation that within a few years a dense population will line
+the river bank and repeat on a larger and finer scale the miracle of
+redemption by water already performed at various points on the River and
+its tributaries. Several town sites, of which the chief is Hanford, named
+from the president of the company, have already been laid out, and
+investments both in town property and orchard land are being rapidly made.
+The same process of irrigating is becoming inaugurated at many points from
+Hanford for a hundred and fifty miles down the River. It is plain to the
+observer that it is but a question of time when the shores of the River in
+this arid section will bloom and blossom like the rose, and repeat the
+history of Old Nile in massing of population and creation of cities and
+towns. It has been estimated that there are about a million acres of
+irrigable land contiguous to the River between Chelan and The Dalles.
+Since from five to twenty acres of irrigated land are ample to maintain a
+family, and since cities and villages are bound to grow on such tracts
+commensurate with their productive capacity, it seems probable that a
+million people will sometime live on this long belt of fertile soil
+redeemed by the River.
+
+The beauty of irrigation on the Columbia is that it can be made to pump
+itself. For by taking advantage of such a fall as that of Priest Rapids (a
+half million horse-power at ordinary water), electric power can be
+generated by which limitless water can be raised sufficiently to cover any
+desired amount of land. Some have expressed the opinion that this process
+would exhaust the River, but this is hardly possible. For the great
+demands are in June and July when the River is at its flood. It has been
+estimated that at low water the Columbia at Celilo discharges 125,000
+cubic feet per second, and at extreme high water, 1,600,000 cubic feet per
+second. Such a prodigious volume of water would be scarcely at all
+affected by any possible withdrawals.
+
+The River from the foot of Priest Rapids is regularly navigated by several
+steamers connecting the new lands and towns with Pasco, the railroad
+centre seventy miles below. This section of the River is deep and
+tranquil, a superb watercourse. Below Hanford the River receives the
+Yakima River, which is the important agent in the irrigation of the great
+Yakima Valley. No one could say that he knew the Columbia River or the
+State of Washington without a visit to that valley, the largest in the
+State and the scene of the most extensive development in irrigated lands
+anywhere in the North-west. Three thousand carloads of fruit and
+vegetables were shipped from the Yakima in 1907. Buyers of Yakima fruits
+come from all parts of the East, from England, and even from France.
+Fortunes have been made in that fair land,--a fair land when supplied with
+water, but an arid waste without it. The United States Government has
+acquired control of most of the water system of the Yakima, and by means
+of storage basins in the mountain lakes where the Yakima and its branches
+rise, will be able to supply water for over a million acres of land.
+
+[Illustration: On the Historic Walla Walla River. Photo. by W. D.
+Chapman.]
+
+The productive capacity of these fat lands when softened with an
+irrigating ditch and tickled with a hoe or cultivator is almost beyond
+belief. In 1907 an orchardist in what is known as Parker Bottom in the
+Yakima Valley raised on fifty-eight pear trees a crop of pears which was
+sold for over three thousand dollars. This statement is well attested,
+extraordinary as it sounds. It should be understood that such production
+does not represent an average yield. The trees were of large size and of
+the choicest variety, while conditions of production, price, and sale were
+of the best. Yet similar records may be found in Wenatchee, Hood River,
+Walla Walla, and others of the fine fruit-producing regions of the
+Columbia Valley. A man in the Touchet Valley near Dayton, who had been for
+twenty years a teacher at an average salary of a thousand a year, became
+discontented with his narrow conditions, and by making credit arrangements
+for a rich body of land has devoted himself for some years to the
+development of an apple orchard. He has a hundred acres of trees, young
+and of choice varieties, from which in the year 1907 he sold thirty-four
+thousand boxes of fruit for approximately fifty thousand dollars.
+
+But while we have been flying in imagination over the spacious valley of
+the Yakima, our steamer has been speeding down the broad River, and we are
+now within sight of a vast prairie stretching east and south, bounded on
+the southern horizon by the azure wall, ridged with white, of the Blue
+Mountains. To the east, this great plain melts into the sky. In fact it
+extends to the Bitter Root Mountains, a distance of over two hundred
+miles. On the west bank of the River we see a narrower plain bounded by a
+steep treeless ridge. On either bank we see taking shape before us houses
+and trees, while extended over the River, like threads of gossamer in the
+distance, a bridge is outlined against the sky. We soon discover that we
+are near Pasco on the east bank and Kennewick on the west bank of the
+River. The bridge is that of the Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland,
+and Seattle Railroads. A mile below the bridge the Snake River joins its
+greater brother.
+
+This point is the very hub of the Inland Empire. Here the two great rivers
+unite. Here steamboating on a vast scale will take place in the near
+future. As soon as the locks are placed in the River at Celilo, a hundred
+and thirty miles below, steamers can move freely to the ocean. Here three
+transcontinental railroads pass, two down the River and one to Puget
+Sound. Another is in process of construction to Puget Sound. Here a body
+of the richest soil, on both sides of both rivers, embracing at least a
+hundred and fifty thousand acres, waits only for water to bloom and yield
+as Wenatchee and Yakima have already done. Here the long, hot summer
+insures the earliest production of any part of the North-west, and in
+early production the profit is found.
+
+[Illustration: Blalock Fruit Ranch of a Thousand Acres at Walla Walla,
+Wash. Photo. by W. D. Chapman.]
+
+It is, in fact, obvious at a glance that here at the junction of the
+Columbia and Snake Rivers, at the crossings of the great railroads, and at
+the point of the greatest area of irrigable land in one body, with every
+advantage of soil, climate, and transportation, there is bound to be in
+the near future a large city. Already on the west side of the Columbia the
+beautiful little town of Kennewick, of three thousand inhabitants, where
+six years ago the jack-rabbits, coyotes, and sage-hens held sway, shows
+what can be done with water. For at that point the first irrigating canal
+was put through the waste, and the traveller can now see the results.
+
+Other irrigating enterprises are now in progress, and by the time the
+readers of this volume come to descend the River in the splendid
+steamboats which will sometime run through canals and locks the whole
+length from Revelstoke to the ocean, there will be one of the most
+splendid cities in the North-west at this meeting of the waters. Pasco is
+likely to be the location of the big city. From Pasco there are steamers
+running to Celilo, conveying wheat. The traveller who desires to know the
+River from its surface should take passage on such a steamer. We see the
+same characteristic features of the inauguration of irrigating enterprises
+from point to point, but mainly the shores are still uninhabited and
+barren, and the River, mainly untouched by sail or steamer, sweeps on its
+swift course, as lonely as when Lewis and Clark first turned their canoe
+prows westward.
+
+As we pass the desolate sand heaps near the disconsolate little old town
+of Wallula, we can recall the old Hudson's Bay fort, the Indian wars, the
+struggle for possession, the missions, the incoming immigrants, all the
+tragedy and striving which marked the century just closed. Below Wallula
+the Umatilla highlands throw a barrier eight hundred feet high athwart the
+course of the stream, and the bold escarpments of rock, palisades grander
+than those of the Hudson, attest the energy with which the River fulfilled
+his mission of cleaving the intercepting barrier in two. Below these
+palisades, a vast plain extends many miles on the south to where the
+purple line of the Blue Mountains cuts the horizon. On the margin of this
+plain the little town of Irrigon (where is published a paper with the
+alliterative title of the _Irrigon Irrigationist of Irrigon, Oregon_),
+green and flowery in the wide aridity, shows us again what part water
+plays in reclamation of land. Of similar interest is Blalock Island,
+commemorating the name of Dr. N. G. Blalock of Walla Walla, whom the
+North-west honours as the father of great enterprises.
+
+We pass several rapids on this section of the River, the chief of which
+are the Umatilla, John Day, and Hell-gate. These are somewhat serious
+impediments to navigation at low water. The Umatilla Rapid presents the
+curious feature of a reef extending almost directly across the River with
+the channel running parallel to it and at right angles to the course of
+the stream. Hence when the water is so low that the reef cannot be passed
+directly over, the steamer pilot must follow a channel running right
+across the current, a current which tends to throw him broadside onto the
+reef. The Government is at present engaged in blasting a channel
+directly through this reef. The country becomes more rugged as we descend,
+and at various points, if the sky be clear, we can see the great peaks of
+the Cascades to the west. Passing through the wild water of Hell-gate,
+where the steamer quivers as though great hands were reaching up from
+below and shaking her, we soon find ourselves at Celilo.
+
+[Illustration: Witch's Head, near Old Wishram Village. The Indian
+Superstition Is that these Eyes will Follow Any Unfaithful Woman. By
+Courtesy of Major Lee Moorehouse.]
+
+This is the beginning of the greatest series of obstructions on the River
+and the point where the Government is now constructing a canal, by means
+of which the entire upper course of the River will be brought into
+connection with the lower. In the distance of twelve miles the River falls
+eighty-one feet at low water and sixty feet at high water. The Tumwater
+Falls at the head of this series of obstructions has a descent of twenty
+feet at low water, but at high water the volume of the River is so great
+that it passes directly over the fall and a boat can shoot over the steep
+slope. Here was one of the most famous places in early history. On the
+north side was the Wishram village, noted in Irving's _Astoria_. This,
+too, was the greatest place for fishing on the upper River. Even now the
+Indians gather in autumn in great numbers and can be seen spearing the
+salmon. Several immense fish-wheels also can be seen upon the verge of the
+falls.
+
+The most remarkable of all these obstructions is Five-Mile Rapids. This is
+the place to which in the first place the French _voyageurs_ applied the
+name _Dalles_, meaning a trough through the flat plates of rock. It is
+sometimes called the "Big Chute."
+
+It is planned by the Government to overcome these obstructions by a canal
+and locks. The expense is estimated at four and a half million dollars.
+The resulting advantages will be vast. The greater part of the Inland
+Empire will be thrown open to steamer competition with the railroads. The
+freight tariff at the present time is heavier than in any other part of
+the United States. If the productive capacity of the region were not
+extraordinary, it could not have developed as it has with such a handicap.
+It is estimated that by the reduction of freight which will follow
+steamboat navigation, the Inland Empire will save not less than two
+million dollars annually. In the tremendous movement now sweeping over our
+country to improve waterways, the Columbia will bear its part and receive
+its improvement. It will be a great day for the storied and scenic River
+of the West when some magnificent excursion steamer descends the thousand
+miles from Revelstoke to the outer headlands. And with canals at Celilo,
+Priest Rapids, and Kettle Falls, with some improvements at minor points,
+at no immoderate expense, the thing can be done.
+
+And now we reach the city of The Dalles. The traveller will find this a
+place hardly surpassed in historic interest by any other on the River. The
+old trading posts, the United States fort, the missions, the Indian wars,
+the early immigrations, the steamboat enterprises, all unite to give rare
+value to this picturesque "capital of the sheep country." For, aside from
+historic interest, The Dalles surpasses any other point in the United
+States as a wool shipping station. It is now becoming also the centre of a
+farming and orchard country. For it is now understood that the rolling
+hill land for many miles is adapted to wheat raising and to fruit of the
+finest quality. If our visitors to the River should happen to be in The
+Dalles in autumn they would find at the Wasco County Horticultural Fair
+one of the most attractive and appetising displays of fruit that the whole
+country affords.
+
+[Illustration: Cabbage Rock, Four Miles North of The Dalles. Photo. by Lee
+Moorehouse, Pendleton.]
+
+The scenery about The Dalles, with the majestic River, the great white
+cones of Hood and Adams, and wide sweeps of rolling prairie and hollowed
+hills, is noble and inspiring. It may be considered the gateway of the
+open prairie to the east and the passage of the Cascade Mountains by the
+River to the west.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Where River and Mountain Meet, and the Traces of the Bridge of the Gods
+
+    The Most Unique Point yet on the River--River, Mountains, and
+    Tide--The Only Place where the Cascade Range is Cleft--Distant View of
+    Mt. Hood and Gradual Appearance of Lesser Heights--Limits of Region
+    where River and Mountain Meet--Geological Character of this
+    Region--Forces of Upheaval and Erosion and Volcano--We May Journey by
+    Rail, by Steamboat, Horseback, Waggon, or Afoot, but we Prefer a
+    Rowboat--Paha Cliffs--On the Track of Speelyei--Memaloose Island--Hood
+    River and White Salmon Valleys and their Fruit--Beginnings of the
+    Great Heights--The Sunken Forest--The Bridge of the Gods--Loowit,
+    Wiyeast, and Klickitat--Difference in Climate between the
+    East-of-the-Mountains and the West--Sheridan's Old Blockhouse--Passing
+    the Locks--Petrified Trees--Fish-wheels--Castle Rock--Ascent of Castle
+    Rock--Story of Wehatpolitan--St. Peter's Dome--Oneonta
+    Gorge--Multnomah Falls--Cape Horn--Getting out of the Mountains--Cape
+    Eternity and Rooster Rock--This Section of the Journey
+    Ended--Comparison of the River with Other Great Scenes.
+
+
+In the long journey down our River we have had a panoramic view of
+towering mountains and broad plains, foaming cataracts and tranquil lakes,
+fruitful valleys and volcanic desolations, growing cities and lonely
+wastes. All illustrate that infinite variety of the River which imparts
+its unrivalled charm.
+
+But now we are approaching a point which is unique even in the midst of
+the unique, varied in never-ending variety, sublime even in almost
+continuous sublimity, singular even upon our most singular River. This
+place is where the mountains and the River meet. By mountains we mean the
+great chain of the Cascades, which under various names parallels the
+Pacific Coast all the way from Alaska to Southern California. But not only
+do mountains and River meet here, but the ocean sends his greetings, for
+at the lower end of the rapids which here mark the gateway of the
+mountains, the first pulse-beat of the Pacific, the first throb of the
+tide, is discernible, though it is a hundred and sixty miles farther to
+where the River is lost in that greatest of the oceans. River, Mountains,
+Ocean,--a very symposium of sublimities.
+
+[Illustration: Eagle Rock, just above Shoshone Falls in Snake River.
+Photo. by W. D. Lyman.]
+
+There is, too, another especially interesting feature of this spot, and
+that is, it is the only place for twelve hundred miles where the
+Cascade-Sierra Range is cleft asunder. In fact it is the only place in the
+entire extent of the range where it is cut squarely across. This fact
+imparts not only scenic interest, but commercial value. It is the only
+water-level route from the seacoast to the Inland Empire.
+
+The place where River and mountains meet had been heralded to us long
+before we reached it. For as we passed the plains of the Umatilla we got
+an intimation of the mountain majesty which we were approaching.
+Clear-limned against the south-western horizon, a glistening cone,
+cold-white in the earliest morning, rosy-red with the rising dawn, and
+warm with the yellow halo of noon, fixes our eyes and bids us realise that
+from the far vision of a hundred miles we can see and worship at the
+shrine of Oregon's noblest and most historic peak, Mt. Hood. As we speed
+on down the current we begin to see long lines of lesser peaks rising to
+the westward. The prairies of the Umatilla have been succeeded by
+picturesque bare hills, and these by ragged palisades of columnar basalt,
+with higher hills yet, crowned with gnarled oak-trees. Of the wheat-fields
+and orchards and sheep ranges centring at The Dalles, we have already
+spoken, and we have paused at Celilo and gazed on the historic "Timm," or
+the Tumwater Falls, and the "Big Chute," observing especially the
+Government canal and locks now started, from whose completion such vast
+commercial possibilities are plainly foreshadowed. Our present quest is
+therefore yet farther on, to the gateway of the mountains. This is found
+at the "Cascade Locks," fifty miles below Dalles City. The section of
+river which we have styled "Where River and Mountain Meet" may be
+considered as extending from the mouth of the Klickitat River, a few miles
+west of Dalles City, to Rooster Rock, about thirty miles east of
+Vancouver. The distance between these points is about fifty miles, and
+through this space we may see all the evidences of a titanic struggle
+between the master forces of fire and water and upheaval. As we descend
+the majestic stream with the majestic banks on either hand and mark the
+apparent ancient water-marks hundreds of feet above our heads, we recall
+the Indian myth of Wishpoosh in an earlier chapter. The opinion of
+geologists in regard to this extraordinary passageway of the River is that
+it represents ages of gradual elevation of the mountain chain and a
+cotemporary erosion by the River, so that as the heights became higher,
+the river bed became deeper. The one-time shore slowly mounted skyward,
+and as the new upheavals rose from the ocean deeps the lines of erosion
+were in turn wrought on them, and river shore succeeded river shore
+through long ages. With these fundamental forces of upheaval and erosion
+there were eras of local seismic and volcanic activity, more cataclysmic
+in nature, from which there came the magnificent pillars of columnar
+basalt and the first trenching of the profound chasms which subsequent
+lateral streams carved through the rising base of the great range.
+
+[Illustration: Stehekin Canyon, 5000 Feet Deep. Photo. by W. D. Lyman.]
+
+To view this great picture gallery of history and physiography, we may
+have the choice of nearly every method of travel, horseback, afoot, by
+team (though the waggon roads are not continuous), or by train, on either
+bank. The river himself offers his broad back for any kind of craft.
+Several swift and elegant steamers make daily trips between Portland and
+The Dalles, passing through the Government canal and lock at the Cascades.
+Launches, scows, sailing craft of almost every kind, are in constant
+movement, loaded with every sort of commodity. Of all the means of
+transit, however, we will, if you please, float down the stately stream in
+our well-tried skiff. Independent as the Coyote god Speelyei when he used
+to pass up and down the river, transforming presumptuous beasts or mortals
+into rock at will, we will drift with the current, partaking of the very
+life of the rich and multifarious nature about us. We can pause as we wish
+on jutting crag or fir-crowned promontory or at the foot of spouting
+cataract. We can camp for the night beneath some wide-spreading pine, and
+breathe the balsamic fragrance of the "continuous woods." We can trace the
+historic stages of bateaux or canoes or immigrant flatboats, and open and
+shut the camera at will amid the open volumes of our heroic age of
+discovery and settlement, or the yet vaster and grander epoch of Nature's
+creative day. No palace car or even floating palace of steamer for us when
+we can have two or three days of such unalloyed bliss in an open skiff
+moving at our own sweet will.
+
+We shall find here a marked change in the movement of the river as
+compared with its prevailing character in the five hundred miles from the
+British line to The Dalles. The impetuous might above has become
+transformed into a slow and stately majesty. With the exception of the
+five miles at the Cascades round which the canal passes, the river below
+The Dalles is deep and calm, seldom less than a mile in width.
+
+Of the almost numberless objects at which we level eye and camera, we can
+here describe but few.
+
+A fitting introduction to this stage of our journey is found in Paha
+Cliffs at the mouth of the Klickitat, a perpendicular bastion of lava
+rock, not remarkable for height, but of such regularity and symmetry as to
+seem the work of men's hands. A short distance below the Paha Cliffs, also
+on the Washington side of the river, is a most singular semicircular wall
+of gigantic area, surrounding on the west what seems to be an immense
+sunken enclosure. The Indians have a story to the effect that once
+Speelyei, being on his way up the river before this wall existed, paused
+here to perform some unworthy deed (for Speelyei was a curious mixture of
+the noble and the base). Having done the deed, he began to fear that it
+would become known. So he hurriedly built a wall to keep in the report.
+But while he was engaged in building on the west, the report got out on
+the east. The wall that we now see is the remains of his building. Of a
+similar order of Indian fancy is the "Baby-on-the-Board" and the "Coyote
+Head" farther down the river, also on the north side. The Coyote Head is
+near White Salmon. It commemorates the transformation of a presumptuous
+Klickitat chief who wished to proclaim himself equal to Speelyei, so he
+crowned himself with a coyote skin and took his station on the great rock
+wall above the mouth of the White Salmon. And there he remains still, for
+Speelyei with a wave of the hand transformed the offending chieftain into
+rock.
+
+[Illustration: Steamer _Dalles City_ Descending the Cascades of the
+Columbia.]
+
+A few miles below the mouth of the Klickitat, there stands in mid-channel
+one of the most curious and interesting objects on the river, "Memaloose
+Island." This desolate islet of basalt was one of the most noted of the
+frequent "death" or burial places of the Indians. They were accustomed to
+build platforms and place the dead upon them. Apparently this island was
+used for its gruesome purpose for centuries. A large white marble monument
+facing the south attracts the attention of all travellers, and as we pass
+we see that it is sacred to the memory of Vic Trevett. He was a prominent
+pioneer of The Dalles, and in the course of his various experiences became
+a special friend of the Indians, who looked upon him with such love and
+reverence that when his end approached he gave directions that his
+permanent burial-place and monument should be on the place sacred to his
+aboriginal friends.
+
+We have spoken of the region between the mouth of the Klickitat and
+Rooster Rock as the mountain section of the river. But as we move on down
+the stream we discover that there are numerous nooks and glens adjoining
+it which are the choicest locations for fruit and garden ranches. At a
+point just about midway from The Dalles to the Cascades there is a
+remarkable break in the otherwise unbroken and constantly rising mountain
+walls. This break constitutes one of the most charming residence regions
+on the Columbia shores, and at the same time the avenue of approach to the
+most magnificent of mountains. There are here two great valleys. One of
+these is that of Hood River, better called by its musical Indian name
+Waukoma, "The Place of Cottonwoods." It proceeds directly from the foot of
+Mt. Hood, twenty-five miles distant to the south. The valley on the north
+bears a similar relation to Mt. Adams, forty miles distant, and is drained
+by the White Salmon River. From favourable points on the River, or from
+the heights which border it, we obtain views of the two peaks which create
+an unappeasable longing to tread their crags and snow-fields. Though truly
+mountain valleys, these two valleys are of spacious extent. They are
+moreover so richly provided with sun and water and all the ingredients of
+soil necessary to produce the choicest fruit that they have become the
+very paradise of the orchardist. The Hood River apples grace the tables of
+royalty in the old world and delight the palates of epicures in both
+hemispheres, while to the eyes and the nostrils of any one of delicate
+sensibilities their colour and fragrance impart a still more aesthetic
+charm.
+
+As we pass on down the river from those two vales of beauty and plenty, we
+begin to see the first of those lofty crags on either hand, the basaltic
+pinnacles, turretted, spired, castellated, which make the distinguishing
+feature of Columbia River scenery for these fifty miles. Mitchell's Point,
+Shell Mountain, Wind Mountain, Bald Mountain, and Mt. Defiance are the
+first group. The lowest of the group attains an elevation of nearly two
+thousand feet, almost perpendicular, while at the summit of the crags rise
+a thousand feet higher yet long grassy slopes alternating with splendid
+forests.
+
+[Illustration: Memaloose Island, Columbia River. Photo. by E. H.
+Moorehouse.]
+
+As we near the Cascades we note another curious phenomenon. This is the
+sunken forest on either side. At low water these old tree trunks become
+very observable, and their general appearance suggests at once that they
+are the remains of a former forest submerged by a permanent rise in the
+river. This explanation is confirmed by the fact that from The Dalles to
+the Cascades the river is very deep and sluggish. When we reach the
+Cascades a third fact is revealed and that is that at the chief cataract
+the river bank is continually sliding into the river. Trees are thrown
+down by this slow sliding process, railroad tracks require frequent
+adjustment, and on clear, still nights there is sometimes heard a grinding
+sound, while a tremor from the subterranean regions seems to indicate that
+the upper stratum is sliding over the lower toward the river. In fact, the
+mighty force of the stream is all the time eating into the bank and
+gradually drawing it down.
+
+From those and other indications the conclusion has been drawn that some
+prodigious avalanche of rock at a not long distant time dammed the river
+at this point, creating the present Cascades and raising the water above
+so as to submerge the forest, whose remains now attract the attention of
+the observer at the low stage of water.
+
+To confirm this theory we have the Indian story of the "tomanowas bridge,"
+the quaintest and most interesting of the long list of native myths.
+
+The region around the old site of the "Bridge of the Gods" may be
+considered as the dividing line between the Inland Empire and the Coast
+Region. Above, it is dry, sunny, breezy, and electrical, the land of
+wheat-field and sheep ranges, cow-boys and horses and mining camps. Below,
+it is cool, cloudy, still, and soft, the region of the clover and the
+dairy, the salmon cannery, the logging camp, and boats of every sort.
+Above, the rocks look dry and hard, and glitter in the sun. Below, the
+rocks are draped in moss, and from every canyon and ledge there seems to
+issue a foaming torrent. It is, in truth, the meeting place of mountain
+and River.
+
+On all sides around the Cascades there are objects of natural and historic
+interest. Stupendous crags, often streaked with snow, lose themselves in
+the scud of the ocean which is almost constantly flying eastward to be
+absorbed in the more fervid sunshine of up-river. Perhaps the most
+impressive of these vast heights is Table Mountain, on the north side of
+the River, near the locks, said to have been one of the supports of the
+"Bridge of the Gods." Its colours of saffron and crimson add to the
+splendour and grandeur of its appearance. Just below the locks on the
+north side stood the old blockhouse built by a young lieutenant in 1856 as
+a defence against the Klickitat Indians. The blockhouse is now in ruins,
+but the name of its builder has been fairly well preserved, for it
+is--Phil Sheridan.
+
+The total extent of the cataract at the Cascades is five miles and the
+descent is about forty-five feet, of which half is at the upper end at the
+point passed by the locks. We enter the locks in the wake of one of the
+steamers, and in a few minutes find our craft emerging from the lower end
+of the massive structure into the white water which bears us swiftly down
+the remaining part of the Cascades. It looks dangerous to commit an open
+boat to that sweeping current, but as a matter of fact the course of the
+river is straight and deep, though swift, and it is entirely feasible for
+any one of reasonable skill to manage a small boat in the passageway to
+the tranquil expanses below.
+
+[Illustration: Horseshoe Basin, near Lake Chelan, Wash. Photo. by T. W.
+Tolman, Spokane.]
+
+As we speed swiftly down the river, we note the little station of
+Bonneville, named for the historic fur-trader whom the fascinating pages
+of Irving have brought down to this era. A short distance below Bonneville
+our eyes catch sight of a white sign-board bearing the words, "Petrified
+Tree." Sure enough, there is the tree, and a marvellously fine specimen of
+silicification it is, too. When the railroad was built along the river
+bank at this point, the graders ran into a perfect forest of petrified
+wood. The logs and limbs were piled up by the cord near Bonneville, but
+the larger part has been taken in various directions for cabinets and
+ornaments.
+
+But a short time is needed to fly down the Cascades, and at their lower
+end we reach what may be called the Lower River. For here a slight rise
+and fall of tide betokens the presence of the ocean. No more rapids on the
+River, but a tranquil, majestic flood, broadening like a sea toward its
+final destination, a hundred and sixty miles away.
+
+If we were to describe in detail all the marvels of beauty and grandeur
+and physical interest which engage our attention at every stage of the
+journey, our volume would end with this chapter, for there would be no
+room for anything more. One class of objects of curious interest to almost
+all travellers, though of no special charm to scientist or nature lover,
+is the fish-wheels at the Cascades. These are very ingenious contrivances
+set in the midst of a swift place in the stream and made to revolve by the
+current. As they revolve, the huge vans dipping the water scoop up almost
+incredible numbers of the salmon which have made the Columbia famous the
+world over. A weir is built to turn the fish from the outside course into
+the channel of the wheel, with the result that numbers are taken almost
+beyond belief, sometimes as high as eight tons a day by a single wheel.
+Another picturesque sight, both at the Celilo Falls and the Cascades, is
+the Indian fishermen perched upon the rocks and with spear and dip-net
+seeking to fill their larder with the noble salmon.
+
+But now to contemplate the works of God and Nature rather than those of
+man. We must, as already seen, by the necessities of space, ask our
+readers to share with us only the masterpieces of this gallery of wonders.
+Probably all visitors to the River would agree that the following scenes
+most nearly express the spirit and character of the sublime whole: Castle
+Rock, St. Peter's Dome, Oneonta Gorge, Multnomah Falls, Cape Horn, and
+Rooster Rock. To these individual scenes we should add, as the very crown
+of all, the view at the lower Cascades both up and down the great gorge.
+With the majestic heights, scarred with the tempests and the earthquakes
+of the ages, swathed in drifting clouds and oftentimes tipped with snow,
+and the shimmering of the River, and the answering grandeur of sky and
+forest,--this grouping of the whole is more inspiring than any one scene.
+
+[Illustration: Castle Rock, Columbia River. (Copyright by Kiser Photograph
+Co., 1902.)]
+
+The first special object to fix our attention below the Cascades is Castle
+Rock. It is an isolated cliff of basalt, nine hundred feet high, covering
+about seventeen acres, its summit thinly clothed with stunted trees. It
+stands right on the verge of the River, nearly perpendicular on all sides,
+marvellous for symmetry from every point of view. At first sight one gets
+no conception of its magnitude, for it is dwarfed by the stupendous
+pinnacles, three thousand feet high, which compose the walls of the canyon.
+It is said that some Eastern lady, seeing it from a steamer's deck,
+exclaimed, "See that fine rock! I wish I had it in my back yard at home."
+Being informed that she would have to find a pretty spacious back yard to
+accommodate an ornament covering seventeen acres, she was too much
+astonished to believe it. But to any one viewing it deliberately and from
+every point of view, and especially landing, as we in our happy method of
+travel can do, and going about its base, it becomes evident that Castle
+Rock might be called a mountain in almost any other place. It was for a
+long time regarded as an impossible thing to reach the summit. For some
+years there was a standing offer of one thousand dollars for any one who
+would place the Stars and Stripes on the summit. But no one took the dare.
+At last in 1901, when the rivalry between two steamboat lines was keen,
+Frank Smith of the Regulator Line, with George Purser and Charles Church,
+accomplished the seemingly impossible, and, by ropes and staples and
+fingers and teeth and toenails, scaled the almost perpendicular walls, and
+unfurled the Regulator banner to the breeze where no flag ever flew
+before, nor human foot ever trod. It was probably the most risky climb
+ever taken in the North-west. A little later, by the aid of the experience
+of this party, several others attained the summit. Among these were George
+Maxwell, who set the Oregon Railway and Navigation flag as high as that of
+the Regulator had gone, and two photographers, W. C. Staatz and George M.
+Weister. With them went a young lady, Lilian White, who, though she did
+not reach the summit, went higher than any of her sex have gone. Later Mr.
+Whitney, manager of the great McGowan Cannery, went up and placed the
+Stars and Stripes upon the top.
+
+[Illustration: The Lyman Glacier and Glacier Lake in North Star Park Near
+Lake Chelan. Photo. by W. D. Lyman.]
+
+We said that no earlier human steps had trodden that beetling height and
+that Miss White had gone higher than any of her sex. But if we accept the
+romantic Indian tale of Wehatpolitan, our statement needs correction. For
+this story is to the following effect. Wehatpolitan was the beautiful
+child of the principal chieftain in these parts. She loved and was loved
+by a young chief of a neighbouring tribe. But when she was sought by her
+lover in marriage, the stern father denied the request and killed the
+messenger. But the lovers were secretly married and met clandestinely at
+various times. In course of time the father, thinking the infatuation of
+the forbidden lovers to be at an end, gave Wehatpolitan to a chief whom he
+had favoured. The latter kept constant watch of the girl, and one night he
+saw her stealing steathily away, and tracking her he found the secret of
+her midnight wanderings. As soon as the new lover had imparted to the
+father these tidings, the latter with deep duplicity sent word to the
+other chieftain that if he would come to the lodge, all would be forgiven
+and he and Wehatpolitan would be duly wed. Rejoicing at the happy outcome
+to all their troubles, the faithful lover hastened to his own, but no
+sooner had he arrived than he was seized upon and slain by the revengeful
+parent. Not long after this the heartbroken girl gave birth to a child,
+but her father at once decreed that the child must share its father's
+fate. Hearing this pitiless word, Wehatpolitan caught up her child and
+disappeared. All that day they searched in vain, and on the next day, the
+Indians heard wailings from the top of Castle Rock, from which they soon
+discovered that the poor girl with her child had gone to that apparently
+inaccessible height. The old chief, repenting of his harsh course, called
+aloud to his daughter to come down and he would forgive her. But fearing
+new treachery she paid no heed, and the wailings continued. Overcome with
+grief the remorseful chief offered all kinds of rewards for any one who
+would climb the rock and save Wehatpolitan and her child. But though many
+tried, none could succeed. On the third day the wailings ceased. Then the
+half-crazed father himself essayed to climb. He seemed to succeed, for at
+least he disappeared among the crevices of the rock high up toward the
+summit. But he never returned. The Indians thought that he reached the top
+and that finding the lifeless bodies of his daughter and her child he had
+probably given up all hope of getting down and had lain down and died with
+them. But even yet heart-breaking wailings come down from time to time,
+especially when the Chinook blows soft and damp up the river, and these
+wailings have been thought by Indians to be the voice of the spirit of the
+unhappy Wehatpolitan, because it could never descend to the happy hunting
+grounds of the tribe.
+
+Another native idea is to the effect that Castle Rock (which ought to be
+called Wehatpolitan's gravestone) is hollow and is filled with the bodies
+of former generations now turned to stone. As a matter of fact, the party
+of 1901 found evidence of a great cave, but so far there has been found no
+practical ingress. So the interior is still an unexplored mystery. Immense
+quantities of spear-heads and arrow-heads are found along the river at
+this point, and these are apparently of an earlier age than most of those
+found in this country.
+
+Loosing from the enchanted shore of Wehatpolitan's monument, we see for
+several miles on the Oregon side a cordon of perpendicular cliffs, red and
+purple in hue, streaked with spray, and touched here and there with the
+deep green of firs which have rooted themselves with claw-like roots into
+the crevices. Most symmetrical and beautiful, though not the highest of
+this line of elevations, is St. Peter's Dome. Its summit is over two
+thousand feet above the river. While in height it is surpassed by certain
+crags of Chelan or Yosemite, as well as its brothers on the river, it has
+no rival in beauty there, or elsewhere, so far as the author has seen,
+among the wonders of the American continent. Every hour of the day, every
+change of sky or season, reveals some new and unexpected beauty or
+sublimity in this superb cliff.
+
+[Illustration: Hunters on Lake Chelan, with their Spoils. Photo. by W. D.
+Lyman.]
+
+[Illustration: A Morning's Catch on the Touchet, near Dayton, Wash.
+_Sunset Magazine._]
+
+We are almost sated with sublimities by the time we pass on down below St.
+Peter's Dome, but one of the most unique scenes of all is close at hand.
+This is Oneonta Gorge. A swift stream issuing from the cliffs on the south
+side of the River attracts our attention, and we moor our boat to the
+roots of a tall cottonwood and make our way inward. The wall is cleft
+asunder, its sides almost meeting above. At places the smooth sides of the
+Gorge leave no space except for the passage of the pellucid stream, and we
+have to wade hip deep to make our way. Showers of spray descend from the
+towering roof above, and in places we are well-nigh in darkness. Then
+there is a widening and through the broken wall the lances of sunshine
+pierce the gloom with rainbow tints. Marvellous Oneonta with the
+sweet-sounding name! It, too, has its wealth of native myth, of which our
+narrowing limits forbid us to speak.
+
+And now leaving Oneonta, we can see that we have passed the maximum of the
+mountains, and are already looking into a broadening valley, with the yet
+more lordly volume of the river widening toward the sunset. While our eyes
+are thus drawn toward the river, the diminishing walls of the canyon, and
+the fair entrance to what may be called the genuine West-of-the-Mountains,
+we perceive on the Oregon shore a series of waterfalls, higher and grander
+than has even been the wont, and in the midst of them, far-famed
+Multnomah. A spacious sweep of circling mountains, a perpendicular wall,
+indented with a deep recess, and crowned upon its topmost bastions with a
+row of frightened looking trees, and partially visible through
+intercepting cottonwoods at the River's margin a moving whiteness,--such
+is the first vision of this matchless waterfall. A short space farther
+carries us past the screen of cottonwoods, and the whole majestic scene
+lies before us. Like St. Peter's Dome or Castle Rock or Niagara or
+Yosemite or Chelan or Mt. "Takhoma," this scene of Multnomah Falls with
+its surroundings wears that aspect of eternity, that look of final
+perfectness, which marks the great works of nature and of art. The cliff
+almost overhangs, so that except when deflected by the wind against a
+projecting ledge the water leaps sheer through the air its eight hundred
+feet of fall. It is mainly spray when it reaches the deep pool within the
+recess of the mountain, and from that recess the regathered waters pour in
+a final plunge, from which the stream takes its way through the
+cottonwoods to the River.
+
+We disembark and climb to the pool which receives the great fall. We find
+it sunless and almost black in hue from the intensity of the shadows. The
+maidenhair fern which grows at the edge of the pool is nearly white in its
+cool dark abode. The water falls into the pool with a weird, uncanny
+"chug," rather than a splash, so great is the sheer fall and so largely
+does the water consist of spray alternating with "chunks"--if we may so
+express it--of water. The pool is large enough to hold a steamboat and of
+considerable depth. A pretty rustic bridge spans the gorge through which
+the stream passes on its way from the pool, and below the bridge is the
+final fall of seventy-five feet. On account of its proximity to Portland
+and the frequent steamboat excursions, Multnomah has become quite a
+resort. While the creek is only of moderate size in summer, and the fall
+is notable rather for beauty than energy, yet when swollen by the rains
+and melting snows of winter and spring it takes on the dimensions of a
+river. Then the fall hurling its great volume over the eight hundred feet
+of open space assumes an appalling sublimity.
+
+[Illustration: Oneonta Gorge--Looking In. Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.]
+
+And now with the sounds of the fall ringing in our ears and our eyes
+turned back for a final reluctant gaze, we make our way across the River
+and a short distance down to the next wonder on the Washington side. This
+is Cape Horn. It is a long palisade of basalt, not high compared to most
+of the river walls, being only about two hundred feet high, but it is the
+most complete example of continuous basaltic formation on the River. The
+beauty and symmetry of the formation, the deeps of the River reflecting
+the escarpment of rock, the wide-opening vista of hazy islands and
+extending plains down-stream;--all these together compose a scene unique
+in itself and, though so different, placing Cape Horn in the same gallery
+of royal pictures which we have been gathering.
+
+A few miles below Cape Horn it becomes apparent that we are about to issue
+from the mountain pass. The heights have fallen away. Deep valleys appear
+and many habitations attest the cultivable character of the region. But as
+if to show that she has not exhausted her resources, wonder-working Nature
+has set one more masterpiece in the long line, and this is Rooster Rock,
+with a mighty rampart of rock adjoining and closing the southern horizon.
+Together they mark the western limit of the mountains. That rampart, which
+was once well named Cape Eternity, though the name does not seem to have
+been preserved, is a sheer massive precipice of a thousand feet. Though
+not nearly so high as some of the cliffs above, it is not surpassed by any
+for the appearance of solid and massive power. Rooster Rock is
+distinguished by a singular and exquisite beauty, rather than magnitude or
+grandeur. It is only three hundred and fifty feet high, but in form and
+colour and alternation of rock and trees it is the most beautiful object
+on the River.
+
+With a farewell to Cape Eternity and Rooster Rock we are out of the
+mountains, and this stage of our long journey is at an end. If we were to
+compare the section of the River which we have described in this chapter
+with other great scenes in our country, we would say that this section of
+the Columbia from Paha Cliffs to Rooster Rock possesses a greater variety
+than any other. Chelan has loftier cliffs, clearer and deeper water, and a
+certain chaotic and elemental energy beyond comparison. The Yellowstone
+has a greater richness of colouring and larger waterfalls, together with
+the unique features of the geysers. Yosemite has loftier waterfalls and
+has cliffs that in some respects are even more imposing. Puget Sound has
+finer distant scenes, with lagoons and channels and archipelagoes. Each of
+these grand exhibitions of nature's works is equal or even superior to the
+Columbia Gorge in some special feature. But the River has every feature.
+It has cliffs and mountains and waterfalls and cataracts, valleys and
+forests, broad marine views near and distant, colour and form, shore and
+sky, earth and air and water, a commingling of all elements of beauty,
+grandeur, and physical interest. Add to this, that, up or down, the broad
+waters of the River are accessible to every form of floating craft, and
+that Portland, one of the most beautiful and progressive cities of the
+West, destined to become one of the great cities of the world, sits at the
+very gates of admission to this symposium of grandeurs and wonders, and we
+have such an aggregation of charms that we may well suppose that all the
+other great scenic regions would bow before our great River and
+acknowledge him as the king of all.
+
+[Illustration: Cape Horn, Columbia River--Looking Up. Photo. by E. H.
+Moorehouse, Portland.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A Side Trip to Some of the Great Snow-Peaks
+
+    Attractions of our Mountain Peaks--Relations to the Rivers--Locations
+    of the Greatest and their Positions with Regard to the Cities and the
+    Routes of Travel--The Mountain Clubs--The Peaks, Especially Belonging
+    to the River: Hood, Adams, and St. Helens--A Journey to Hood--Beauty
+    of the Approach through Hood River Valley--Lost Lake--Cloud-Cap Inn
+    and Elliot Glacier--Extreme Steepness of the Ascent--Magnificence of
+    the View--Mt. Adams--The Hunting and Fishing--The Glaciers--The
+    Vegetation about the Snow-Line--The Night Storm--Morning and the
+    Ascent--Views Around, Up, Down--Ascent by the Mazama Club in 1902 and
+    the Transformation Scene--General Similarity of Ascent of our
+    Peaks--Zones of a Snow-Peak.
+
+"_Nesika Klatawa Sahale_"
+
+
+Most countries have rivers of beauty and grandeur; many have lakes of
+scenic charm; many have hills and mountain chains; but there is only one
+country in the United States that has all of these features, and, in
+addition, a number of isolated giant peaks, clad in permanent ice and
+snow. That country is the Pacific North-west. Throughout Oregon and
+Washington and extending partly through California is a series of volcanic
+peaks which gather within themselves every feature of natural beauty,
+sublimity, and wonder.
+
+The fifteen most conspicuous of these peaks, beginning with Baker or
+Kulshan on the north, and ending with Pitt on the south, are spaced at
+nearly regular intervals of from thirty to fifty miles, except for the one
+group of the Three Sisters, which, though distinct peaks, are separated
+only by narrow valleys. Most of these great peaks are somewhat remote from
+the cities or the great routes of public travel, and hence are not easily
+accessible to ordinary tourists. None of them, except Hood and Rainier or
+Tacoma, possesses hotel accommodations. The natives are more accustomed to
+"roughing it," and braving the wilderness than most Eastern people are,
+and hence many parties go annually from the chief cities of Oregon and
+Washington to the great peaks. Some of them, as Glacier Peak and Shuksan,
+are so environed with mountain ramparts and almost impassable canyons as to
+be practically unknown. The most approachable and the most visited are
+Hood, Rainier, and Adams.
+
+[Illustration: Looking up the Columbia River from the Cliff above
+Multnomah Falls, Ore. (Copyright, Kiser Photograph Co., 1902.)]
+
+The greatest influence in organising visits to these mountains, and in
+cultivating an appreciation of them among the people of the region, as
+well as in informing the world regarding them, has existed in the mountain
+clubs. The chief of these are the Mazama (Wild Goat) Club of Portland and
+the Mountaineers of Seattle. Membership is not confined to those two
+cities, though mainly located there. The Mazama Club may be called the
+historic mountain climber's club, and it has done incalculable good in
+fostering a love of mountains and in arranging expeditions to them.
+
+The three peaks which may be considered as especially belonging to the
+Columbia River are Hood, Adams, and St. Helens. As the traveller on the
+River views the unsullied spires and domes of these great temples of
+nature, he longs to worship in their more immediate presence. As a logical
+consequence of this sentiment, after having floated down the Columbia from
+The Dalles to Rooster Rock, we feel that life would be at least partly in
+vain if we should fail to plant feet on the topmost snows of at least two
+of these great heights.
+
+We will first visit Hood. Though not the highest, this is the boldest and
+most picturesque of all. Moreover by reason of its location, seen
+conspicuously as it is from Portland and the Willamette Valley, and
+because of its nearness to the old immigrant road into Oregon, Hood was
+the first noticed, and the most often described, painted, and berhymed of
+any of the wintry brotherhood. As the Puget Sound region became settled,
+and great cities began to grow up there, Mt. Rainier ("Takhoma") began to
+be a rival in popular estimation. When measurements showed that Rainier
+was three thousand feet higher, and Adams over one thousand feet higher
+than the idolised Hood, a wail of grief arose from the Oregonians, and for
+a time they could hardly be reconciled. But as they became adjusted to the
+situation, they planted themselves upon the proposition that, though Hood
+was not the highest, it was the most beautiful, and that its surroundings
+were superior to those of any other. For this proposition there is much to
+be said, though, in truth, we must accept the dictum of Dogberry that
+"comparisons are odorous"
+
+The usual approach to Mt. Hood by the Hood River route is indeed of
+striking attractiveness. This picturesque orchard valley is like an avenue
+of flowers leading to a marble temple. One of the finest points in the
+vicinity of Hood River, seldom visited because it is off the road and
+buried in forests, is Lost Lake. Perhaps the grandest view of Mt. Hood is
+from this lake. The bold pinnacle, rising out of the broad fields of snow,
+they in turn most wondrously encircled in forests of rich hue, is mirrored
+in the clear water with a perfectness that scarcely can be matched among
+the many lakes of its kind in all the land. In these days of swift
+transit, Hood River keeps up with the procession, for there is a regular
+automobile line from the town to Cloud-Cap Inn at the snow-line of the
+great peak, twenty-four miles distant. The distance, though it represents
+a rise of seven thousand feet, is traversed all too quickly to fully enjoy
+the valley, filled with its orchards, and rising in regular gradation from
+the heat of the lower end to the bracing cold of the upper air. In
+Cloud-Cap Inn the traveller may find the daintiest, most unique specimen
+of a mountain resort in our mountains. The Inn is owned by a wealthy
+Portland man, and is maintained rather as an attraction to visitors than
+with the expectation of making money.
+
+[Illustration: Spokane Falls and City, 1886. Photo. by T. W. Tolman,
+Spokane.]
+
+[Illustration: Spokane Falls and City, 1908. Photo. by T. W. Tolman,
+Spokane.]
+
+From the Inn one can climb in a few minutes to Photographer's Point, from
+which he can look right down on the Elliot Glacier, not a large, but an
+exceedingly fine specimen of that most interesting of all features of a
+great peak.
+
+Hood, though so steep, can be ascended from several points. It was for a
+long time supposed to be unscalable from the north side. But William
+Langille, one of the most daring and successful mountain climbers of
+Oregon, soon found his way up the sharp ascent, and, once marked out, that
+route has been followed by the great majority of climbers. Though very
+steep, there has never been an accident on this route except in one case,
+when a stranger undertook the climb alone and never returned. He probably
+lost his footing and fell into a crevasse. With the usual precautions of
+ropes and ice hatchets and caulks, a party can make their way over the
+steep slope, and its very steepness makes the ascent quicker and less
+exhaustive than to overcome the longer and more gradual ascents of Adams
+or "Takhoma." While it takes but about four or five hours for an average
+party to go from snow-line to summit of Hood, either of the other
+mountains named demands from seven to ten hours.
+
+And having reached the summit, what a view! If the day be entirely
+clear--a rare occurrence--you will behold a domain for an empire. On the
+south, the long line of the Cascades, with the occasional great heights,
+Jefferson, Three Sisters, Thielson, Diamond, Scott, and, if it be very
+clear, even Pitt. To the north, the giant bulk of Adams, the airy symmetry
+of St. Helens, and the lordly majesty of Rainier, rule sky and earth,
+while in mazy undulations the great range, alternately purple and white,
+stretches on and on until it blends into the clouds.
+
+Seemingly almost at the feet of the observer, a dark green sinuosity amid
+the timbered hills, now strangely flattened, as we stand so high above
+them, marks the course of the River on its march oceanward. If the day be
+very clear, a whitish blur far westward shows where the "Rose City" on the
+Willamette reigns over her fair domains, while a dim stretch of varied
+hues denotes the Willamette Valley. Some climbers have even asserted that
+late in the afternoon of extremely clear days the glint of the western sun
+can be seen upon the Pacific, a hundred and fifty miles distant. Toward
+the east lie the vast plains of the Inland Empire, marked at their farther
+limit by the soft curves and lazy swells of the range of the Blue
+Mountains.
+
+While it is an ungracious and even a fruitless undertaking to compare such
+objects as the great mountains or the views from the respective summits,
+it may be said that Hood has one conspicuous feature of the view, and that
+is that it is nearest the centre of the great mountain peaks, as well as
+systems, and also best commands the outlook over the great valley systems
+and river systems of this part of the Columbia Basin. And therefore,
+though the view is not equal in breadth to that from the summit of Adams
+or Rainier, it is unsurpassed for variety and interest. It may be said to
+cover more history than the view from any other peak. Across the southern
+flank lies the old Barlow Road, over which came the greater part of the
+immigration in the days of the ox-team conquest of Oregon in the forties
+and fifties. Thirty miles east is The Dalles with its old fur-trader's
+station, its old United States fort, its mission station, its Indian wars,
+its early settlement, the most historic place in Eastern Oregon. From the
+old town, during all the years from the opening of the century, there
+descended the River the trappers, missionaries, immigrants, miners,
+soldiers, hunters, home-seekers, of a later day, adventurers and promoters
+of every species, to say nothing of the generations of Indians who lived
+and died along the banks.
+
+To the west of our icy eyrie, Portland and Vancouver, with the rich
+valleys around them, represent the earliest explorations and developments
+of the fur-traders, as well as the earliest days of the era of permanent
+settlement. There in the westward haze is the little town of Champoeg
+where the Provisional Government of Oregon was established. In fact, in
+whatsoever direction we may look, we see illustrations of the heroic age
+of Old Oregon, the drama of native races, rival powers of Europe and
+America, the march of empire, a section of humanity and the world in the
+making.
+
+When our visit to Hood is ended we must cross the River and traverse
+another paradise, the White Salmon Valley, leading to Mt. Adams, the old
+Indian Klickitat. Adams is in such a position that its true elevation and
+magnitude cannot be understood from Portland or The Dalles or most of the
+routes of travel. Therefore until comparatively recent times it was
+generally supposed that Adams was an insignificant mountain in comparison
+with Hood, which looms up with such imposing grandeur from every point
+along the chief highways of commerce. It was discovered by the Mazama Club
+in 1896 that Adams carried his regal crown at a height of twelve thousand
+four hundred and seventy feet above the level of the sea, while the
+previously established height of Hood was only eleven thousand two hundred
+and twenty-five. Since then Adams has been held in much greater respect by
+mountain lovers, and many journeys have been made to and on it.
+
+Around Mt. Adams is a region of caves. As one rides through the open
+glades he may often hear the ground rumble beneath his horse's hoofs.
+Mouths of Avernus yawn on every side. Some caverns have sunken in, leaving
+serpentine ravines. One cave has been traced three miles without finding
+the end. Some of these caves are partially filled with ice. There is one
+in particular, fifteen miles south-west of the mountain, which is known as
+Ice Cave. This is very small, not over four hundred feet long, but it is a
+marvel of unique beauty. Its external appearance is that of a huge well,
+at whose edge are bunches of nodding flowers, and from whose dark depths
+issue sudden chilly gusts. Descending by means of a knotty young tree
+which previous visitors have let down, we find ourselves on a floor of
+ice. The glare of pitch-pine torches reveals a weird and beautiful scene.
+A perfect forest of icicles of both the stalactite and stalagmite forms
+fills the cave. They are from ten to fifteen feet in length and from one
+to three in diameter. From some points of view they look like silvered
+organ-pipes.
+
+These caves have been formed in some cases by chambers of steam or bubbles
+in the yet pasty rock which hardened enough to maintain their form upon
+the condensation of the vapour. Others were doubtless produced by a tongue
+of lava as it collected slag and hardened rock upon its moving edge,
+rising up and curling over like a breaker on the sand. Only the "cave of
+flint" instead of turning into a "retreating cloud" had enough solid
+matter to sustain the arch and so became permanent. Others were no doubt
+formed by pyroducts. A tongue of flowing lava hardens on the surface. The
+interior remains fluid. It may continue running until the tongue is all
+emptied, leaving a cavern. Such a cavern, whose upper end reaches the cold
+air of the mountains, might be like a chimney, down which freezing air
+would descend, turning into ice the water that trickled into the cave,
+even at the lower end.
+
+For sport, the region about Mt. Adams is unsurpassed. The elk, three kinds
+of deer, the magnificent mule deer, the black-tail, and the graceful
+little white-tail, two species of bear, the cinnamon and black, the daring
+and ubiquitous mountain goat, quail, grouse, pheasants, ducks, and cranes,
+are among the attractions to the hunter. Of late years great bands of
+sheep have driven the game somewhat from the south and east sides. In the
+grassy glades that encircle the snowy pile of Adams no vexatious
+undergrowth impedes the gallop of our fleet cayuse pony or obscures our
+vision. On the background of fragrant greenery the "dun deer's hide" is
+thrown with statuesque distinctness, and among the low trees the whirring
+grouse is easily discerned. Nor is the disciple of Nimrod alone
+considered. After our hunt we may move to Trout Lake, and here the very
+ghost of the lamented Walton might come as to a paradise. Trout Lake is a
+shallow pool half a mile in length, encircled with pleasant groves and
+grassy glades, marred now, however, by the encroachment of ranches. Into
+it there come at intervals from the ice-cold mountain inlet perfect shoals
+of the most gamey and delicious trout. On rafts, or the two or three rude
+skiffs that have been placed there, one may find all piscatorial joys and
+may abundantly supply his larder free of cost. A few ranches here and
+there furnish accommodations for those who are too delicate to rest on the
+bosom of Mother Earth. But no extended trip can be taken without
+committing oneself to the wilderness delights of sleeping with star-dials
+for roof and flickering camp-fire for hearth. And what healthy human being
+would exchange those for the feverish, pampered life of the modern house?
+Let us have the barbarism, and with it the bounding pulses and exuberant
+life of the wilderness.
+
+[Illustration: In the Heart of the Cascade Mountains, above Lake Chelan,
+Wash. Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.]
+
+But now, with stomachs and knapsacks filled, and with that pervasive sense
+of contentment which characterises the successful hunter and angler, we
+must get up our cayuse ponies from their pastures on the rich grass of the
+open woods, saddle up, and then off for the mountain, whose giant form now
+overtops the very clouds. About two miles from Trout Lake the trail
+crosses the White Salmon, and we find ourselves at the foot of the
+mountain. For eight miles we follow a trail through open woods, park-like,
+with huge pines at irregular intervals, and vivid grass and flowers
+between, a fair scene, the native home of every kind of game.
+
+As we journey on delightedly through these glades, rising, terrace after
+terrace, we can read the history of the mountain in the rock beneath our
+feet and the expanding plains and hills below. All within the ancient
+amphitheatre is volcanic. There are four main summits, a central dome,
+vast, symmetrical, majestic, pure-white against the blue-black sky of its
+unsullied height. The three other peaks are broken crags of basalt,
+leaning as for support against the mighty mass at the centre. Around the
+snow-line of the mountain many minor cones have been blown up. These have
+the most gaudy and brilliant colouring, mainly yellow and vermilion. One
+on the south-east is especially noticeable. From a deep canyon it rises
+two thousand feet as steep as broken scoriae can lie. The main part is
+bright red, surmounted by a circular cliff of black rock. Probably the old
+funnel of the crater became filled with black rock, which, cooling, formed
+a solid core. The older material around it having crumbled away, it
+remains a solid shaft.
+
+But fire has not wrought all the wonders of the mighty peak. Ice has been
+most active. The mountain was once completely girdled with glaciers. Rocks
+are scratched and grooved five miles below the present snow-line. The
+ridges are strewn with planed rocks and glacial shavings and coarse sand.
+Some of the monticules on the flanks of the mountain have been partially
+cut away. Many have been entirely obliterated. But the ice has now greatly
+receded. Instead of a complete enswathement of ice there are some six or
+seven distinct glaciers, separated by sharp ridges, while the region
+formerly the chief home of the ice is now a series of Alpine meadows. Like
+most of the snow peaks, Mt. Adams is rudely terraced, and the terraces are
+separated into compartments by ridges, forming scores and hundreds of
+glades and meads. In some of these are circular ponds, from a few square
+rods to several acres in area. These lakes are found by the hundred around
+the mountain and in the region north of it. They are one of the charms and
+wonders of the country. About most of them tall grass crowds to the very
+edge of the water. Scattered trees diversify the scene. Throughout these
+glades flow innumerable streams, descending from level to level in
+picturesque cascades, and composed of water so cold and sparkling that the
+very memory of it cools the after thirst. Sometimes the tough turf grows
+clear over, making a verdant tunnel through which "the tinkling waters
+slip." Here and there streams spout full-grown from frowning precipices.
+
+[Illustration: Birch-Tree Channel; Upper Columbia, Near Golden, B. C.
+Photo. by C. F. Yates, Golden.]
+
+But we are not content to stand below and gaze "upward to that height." We
+must needs ascend. In climbing a snow peak a great deal depends on making
+camp at a good height and getting a very early start. By a little
+searching one may find good camping places at an elevation of seven
+thousand or even eight thousand feet altitude. This leaves only four
+thousand or five thousand feet to climb on the great day, and by starting
+at about four o'clock a party may have sixteen hours of daylight. This is
+enough, if there be no accidents, to enable any sound man of average
+muscle,--or woman either, if she be properly dressed for it,--to gain the
+mighty dome of Adams.
+
+At the time of our last ascent we camped high on a great ridge on the
+south side of the mountain, having for shelter a thick copse of dwarf
+firs. So fiercely had the winds of centuries swept this exposed point that
+the trees did not stand erect, but lay horizontal from west to east.
+
+With pulses bounding from the exhilarating air, and our whole systems
+glowing with the exercise and the wild game of the preceding week, we
+stretch ourselves out for sleep, while the stars blaze from infinite
+heights, and our uneasy camp-fire strives fitfully with the icy air which
+at nightfall always slides down the mountain side.
+
+Sweet sleep till midnight, and then we found ourselves awake all at once
+with a unanimity which at first we scarcely understood, but which a
+moment's observation made clear enough. A regular mountain gale had
+suddenly broken upon us. It had waked us up by nearly blowing us out of
+bed. Our camp-fire was aroused to newness of life by the gale, and the
+huge fire-brands flew down the mountain side, igniting pitchy thickets,
+until a fitful glare illuminated the lonely and savage grandeur of the
+scene. The whole sky seemed in motion. Then a cloud struck us. Night,
+glittering as she was a moment before with her tiaras of stars, was
+suddenly transformed into a dull, whitish blur. The vapour formed at once
+into thick drops on the trees and was precipitated in turn on us.
+Occasional sleet and snowflakes struck us with almost the sting of flying
+sand when we ventured to peep out. Covering ourselves up, heads and all,
+we crowded against each other and grimly went to sleep.
+
+We woke again, chattering with cold, to find it perfectly calm. The
+morning star was blazing over the spot where day was about to break. The
+sky was absolutely clear, not a mote on its whole concavity. The wind had
+swept and burnished it. The mountain towered above us cold and sharp as a
+crystal. There was a still, solemn majesty about it in the keen air and
+early light which struck us with a thrill of fear. The light just before
+daybreak is far more exact than the scarlet splendour of morning or the
+blinding blaze of noon. The world below us was a level sea of clouds. We
+seemed to be on an island of snow and rock, or on a small planetoid
+winging its own way in space. Yet beyond the puncturing top of a few of
+the Simcoe peaks a wavering line that just touched the glowing eastern
+sky, told of clear weather a hundred leagues up the basin of the
+Columbia. Out of the ocean of cloud, the great peaks of Hood and St.
+Helens rose, cold and white, like icebergs on an Arctic sea.
+
+[Illustration: A Typical Mountain Meadow, Stehekin Valley, Wash. Photo. by
+T. W. Tolman, Spokane.]
+
+Coffee, ham, and hardtack, and then out on the ice and snow, just as the
+first warm flush of morning is gilding the mighty mass above us. The snow,
+hardened by the freezing morning, affords excellent footing, and in the
+sharp, bracing air we feel capable of any effort. We gain the summit of a
+bright red knob, one of the secondary volcanoes that girdle the mountain.
+At its peak are purple stones piled up like an altar, as indeed it is,
+though the incense from it is not of human kindling. The sun is not fairly
+up, but from below the horizon it splits the hemisphere of the sky into a
+hundred segments by its auroral flashes. And now we begin to climb a
+volcanic ridge, rising like a huge stairway, with blocks of stone as large
+as a piano. This is a tongue of lava, very recent, insomuch that it shows
+no glacial markings, and yet enough soil has accumulated upon it to
+support vegetation. It can be seen, a dull red river, three hundred yards
+wide, extending far down the mountain side. How well the old Greek poet
+described the process that must have taken place here: "AEtna, pillar of
+heaven, nurse of snow, with fountains of fire; a river of fire, bearing
+down rocks with a crashing sound to the deep sea."
+
+The ridge becomes very steep, at an angle of probably thirty-five or forty
+degrees, and we climb on all fours from one rock to another. At last we
+draw ourselves up a huge wedge of phonolite and find ourselves at the
+summit of the first peak. Six hundred yards beyond, muffled in white
+silence, rises the great dome. It is probably five hundred feet higher
+than the first peak. To reach it we climb a bare, steep ridge of shaly,
+frost-shattered rock, in which we sink ankle deep, a difficult and even
+painful task with the laboured breathing of twelve thousand feet altitude.
+
+But patience conquers, and at about noon, seven hours and a half from the
+time of starting, we stand on the very tip of the mountain. Ten minutes
+panting in the cold wind and then we are ready to look around. Within the
+circle of our vision is an area for an empire. Northward is a wilderness
+of mountains. High above all, Mt. Rainier lifts his white crown unbroken
+to the only majesty above him, the sky. The western horizon, more hazy
+than the eastern, is punctuated by the smooth dome and steely glitter of
+Mt. St. Helens. Far southward, across a wilderness of broken heights,
+rises the sharp pinnacle of Mt. Hood, and far beyond that, its younger
+brother, Jefferson. Still beyond, are the Alpine peaks of the Three
+Sisters, nearly two hundred miles distant. Our vision sweeps a circle
+whose diameter is probably five hundred miles. Far westward the white haze
+betokens the presence of the sea. A deep blue line north-eastward, far
+beyond the smooth dome of St. Helens, stands for Puget Sound. Numerous
+lakes gleam in woody solitudes.
+
+Having looked around, let us now look down. On the eastern side the
+mountain breaks off in a monstrous chasm of probably four thousand feet,
+most of it perpendicular. We crawl as we draw near it. Lying down in turn,
+secured by ropes held behind, fearful as much of the mystic attraction of
+the abyss as of the slippery snow, we peep over the awful verge. Take
+your turn, gentle reader, if you would know what it seems to gaze down
+almost a mile of nearly perpendicular distance. Points of rock jut out
+from the pile and eye us darkly. That icy floor nearly a mile below us is
+the Klickitat glacier. From beneath it a milk-white stream issues and
+crawls off amid the rocky desolation. At the very edge of the great
+precipice stands a cone of ice a hundred feet high. Green, blue, yellow,
+red, and golden, the colours play with the circling sunbeams on its
+slippery surface, until one is ready to believe that here is where
+rainbows are made. We roll some rocks from a wind-swept point, and then
+shudder to see them go. They are lost to the eye as their noise to the
+ear, long before they cease to roll. Silence reigns. There is no echo. The
+thin air makes the voice sound weak. Our loudest shouts are brief bubbles
+of noise in the infinite space. A pistol shot is only a puff of powder.
+Even the rocks we set off are swallowed up and we get no response but the
+first reluctant clank as they grind the lip of the precipice. Nor do we
+care much for boisterous sounds. We are impelled rather to silence and
+worship.
+
+[Illustration: High School, Walla Walla, Wash. Photo. by W. D. Chapman,
+Walla Walla.]
+
+But now once more to earth and camp! For pure exhilaration, commend me to
+descending a snow peak. For a good part of Mt. Adams one may descend in
+huge jumps through the loose scoriae and volcanic ashes. Some of the way
+one may slide on the crusty snow, a perfect whiz of descent. How the thin
+wind cuts past us, and how our frames glow with the dizzy speed! Such a
+manner of descent is not altogether safe. As we are going in one place
+with flying jumps on the softening snow, a chasm suddenly appears before
+us. It looks ten feet wide, and how deep, no one could guess. To stop is
+out of the question. We make a wild bound and clear it, catching a
+momentary glance into the bluish-green crack as we fly across. We make the
+descent in an incredibly short time, only a little more than an hour,
+whereas it took us over seven hours to ascend. And then the rest and
+mighty feasts of camp, and the abundant and mountainous yarns, and the
+roaring camp-fire, whose shadows flicker on the solemn snow-fields, until
+the stars claim the heavens, and, while the wailing cry of the cougars
+rises from a jungle far below us, we sleep and perform again in dreams the
+day's exploits.
+
+Of all scenes in connection with Mt. Adams, the most remarkable in all the
+experience of those who witnessed it, and one of those rare combinations
+which the sublimest aspects of nature afford, was at the time of the
+outing of the Mazama Club in 1902. The party had reached the summit in a
+dense fog, cold, bitter, forbidding, and nothing whatever to be seen. All
+was a dull, whitish blur. In the bitter chill the enthusiasm of some of
+the climbers evaporated and they turned away down the snowy waste. Others
+remained in the hope of a vanishing of the cloud-cap. And suddenly their
+hopes were realised. A marvellous transformation scene was unveiled like
+the lifting of a vast curtain. The cloud-cap was split asunder. The great
+red and black pinnacles of the summit sprung forth from the mist like the
+first lines in a developing photographic plate. Then the glistening tiaras
+and thrones of ice and snow caught the gleams of the unveiled sun, and lo,
+there we stood in mid-heaven, seemingly upon an island in space, with no
+earth about us, just the sun and the sky above and a great swaying ocean
+of fog below. But now suddenly that ocean of fog was rent and split. The
+ardent sun burned and banished it away. Mountain peak after peak caught
+the glory. Range after range seemed to rise and stand in battle array. The
+transformation was complete. A moment before we were swathed in the
+densest cloud-cap, blinded with the fog. Now we were standing on a mount
+of transfiguration, with a new world below us. Every vestige of smoke or
+fog was gone. We could see the shimmer of the ocean to the west, the
+glistening bands of Puget Sound and the Columbia. Far eastward the plains
+of the Inland Empire lay palpitating in the July sun. The whole long line
+of the great snow-peaks of the Cascades were there revealed, the farthest
+a mere speck, yet distinctly discernible, two hundred miles distant. One
+unaccustomed to the mountains would not believe it possible that such an
+area could be caught within the vision from a single point.
+
+[Illustration: Lake Chelan. Photo. by F. N. Kneeland.]
+
+It may be understood that the description of one of our great snow-peaks
+is, in general terms, a description of all. With every one there are the
+same azure skies, the same snow-caps, the same crevassed and glistening
+rivers of ice, the same long ridges with their intervening grassy and
+flowery meads, purling streams, and reflecting lakes. With the name of
+each there rises before Mazama or Mountaineer the remembrance of the camp
+of clouds or stars upon the edge of snow-bank, the sound of the bugle at
+two o'clock in the morning of the great climb, the hastily swallowed
+breakfast of coffee and ham, while climbers stand shivering around the
+flickering morning fire, the approaching day with its banners of crimson
+behind the heights, the daubing of faces with grease-paint and the
+putting on of goggles, amid shouts of laughter from each at the grotesque
+and picturesque ugliness of all the others, then the hastily grasped
+alpenstocks, the forming in line, and at about four o'clock, while the
+first rays of the sun are gilding the summit, the word of command and the
+beginning of the march.
+
+Each great peak has its zones, so significant that each seems a world in
+itself. There is first the zone of summer with its fir and cedar forests
+at the base of the peak, from a thousand feet to twenty-five hundred above
+sea-level. In the case of most of our great peaks this zone consists of
+long gentle slopes and dense forests, with much undergrowth, though on the
+eastern sides there are frequently wide-open spaces of grassy prairie.
+Then comes the zone of pine forest and summer strawberry, with its
+fragrant air and long glades of grass and open aisles of columned trees,
+"God's first temples," pellucid streams babbling over pebbles and white
+sands, and occasionally falling in cascades over ledges of volcanic rock.
+This zone rises in terraces which attest the ancient lava flow, at an
+increasing grade over the first, though at most points one might still
+drive a carriage through the open pine forests. Then comes the third zone,
+a zone of parks. The large pine trees now give way to the belts of
+subalpine fir and mountain pine and larch, exquisite for beauty, enclosing
+the parks and grouped here and there in clumps like those in some old
+baronial estate of feudal times. This is the zone of rhododendron,
+shushula, phlox, and painted brush. Through the open glades the ptarmigan
+and deer wander, formerly unafraid of man, but now, alas, under the ban
+of civilisation. The upward slope has now increased to twenty or
+twenty-five degrees, and to a party of climbers a frequent rest and the
+quaffing of the ice-cold stream that dashes through the woods afford a
+happy feature of the ascent. At the upper edge of this zone, at an
+elevation of probably seven thousand feet, beside some dashing stream or
+some clear pool, fed from the snows above, is the place for the camp. And
+such a camp! Oh, the beauty of such an unspoiled spot!
+
+[Illustration: On the Banks of the Columbia River, near Hood River. Photo.
+by E. H. Moorehouse.]
+
+It is from such a camp at the upper edge of the paradise zone that a party
+sets forth at the four o'clock hour to attain the highest. So the march on
+the great day of a final climb carries us at once into a fourth zone. This
+is the zone of avalanche and glacier, the zone of elemental fury and
+warfare, a zone of ever-steepening ascent, thirty degrees, a zone of
+almost winter cold at night, but with such a dazzling brightness and
+fervour in the day as turns the snow-banks to slush and sends the
+fountains tearing and cutting across the glaciers and triturating the
+moraines. Vegetation has now almost ceased, though the heather still
+drapes the ledges on the eastern or southern exposures, and occasionally
+one of the tenacious mountain pines upholds the banner of spring in some
+sheltered nook. This wind-swept and storm-lashed zone is also the zone of
+the wild goats and mountain sheep. On the precipitous ridges and along the
+narrow ledges at the margin of glaciers they can be seen bounding away at
+the approach of the party, sure-footed and swift at points where the nerve
+of the best human climber might fail. This zone carries the climbers to
+ten or eleven thousand feet of elevation on the highest peaks. And here
+is the place for the Mountaineers and Mazamas to take the half-hour rest
+on their arduous march. A sweet rest it is. We pick out some sheltered
+place on the eastern slope, and stretch ourselves at full length on the
+warm rocks, while the icy wind from the summit goes hurtling above us. And
+how good the chocolate and the malted milk and the prunes and raisins of
+the scanty lunch taste, while we rest and feel the might of elemental
+nature again fill our veins and lungs and hearts.
+
+But then comes a fifth zone, the last, the zone of the Arctic. This is the
+zone of the snow-cap. The glaciers are now below. All life has ceased. The
+grade has ever steepened, till now it is forty degrees or more. The snow
+is hummocked and granulated. Here is where part of the climbers begin to
+stop. Legs and lungs fail. Camp looks exceedingly good down there at the
+verge of the forests. They feel as though they had lost nothing on the
+summit worth going up for. A nausea, mountain sickness, attacks some.
+Nosebleed attacks others. Things look serious. Icy mists sometimes begin
+to swirl around the presumptous climbers. Frost gathers on hair and
+mustache and eyebrows. The unaccustomed or the less ambitious or weaker
+lose heart and bid the rest go on, for they will turn toward a more
+summer-like clime. Generally about half an ordinary party drop out at this
+beginning of the Arctic zone. But the rest shout "Excelsior," take a
+firmer grasp of alpenstock, stamp feet more vehemently into the snow, and
+with dogged perseverance move step by step up the final height. Inch by
+inch, usually in the teeth of a biting gale, leaning forward, and panting
+heavily, they force the upward way. And victory at last! There comes a
+time when we are on the topmost pinnacle, and there is nothing above us
+but the storms and sun. And then what elation! Nothing seems quite to
+equal the pure delight of such a triumph of lungs and legs and heart and
+will.
+
+[Illustration: Rooster Rock, Columbia River--Looking Up. Photo. by E. H.
+Moorehouse, Portland.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Lower River and the Ocean Tides
+
+    Remarkable Change in Climate and Topography--Farms and Villages--First
+    View of Mt. Hood on West Side--Vancouver and its Historic
+    Interest--The North Bank Railroad--View at the Mouth of the
+    Willamette--Sauvie's or Wapatoo Island--Beauty of the Willamette and
+    its Tributaries--Simpson's Poem--Approach to Portland--Site of
+    Portland--Transportation Facilities--Portland's Commerce--Homes and
+    Public Buildings--Art in Portland--The Historical Society Museum--The
+    _Oregonian_ and its Editor--Once more on the River--The Fishing and
+    Lumbering Villages--Scenery of the Lower River--Astoria and the
+    Outlook to the Ocean--Industries of Astoria--The Fisheries--The Fleet
+    of Fishing Boats on the Bar--The Ocean Beaches and the Tourist
+    Travel--Through the Outer Headlands to the Pacific.
+
+
+Having returned from our side trip to the mountain peaks of Hood and Adams
+and having resumed our station on the bank of the River just below Rooster
+Rock, we see that we are now in a new world. We are at sea-level. Dense
+forests clothe the shores, except for the places where the axe of the
+settler or the saws of the lumberman have made inroads. Moss drapes the
+rocks. Ferns and vines take possession wherever the trees have been
+removed. Even in summer a feeling of humidity usually pervades the air. A
+certain softness and roundness seems to characterise both the vegetable
+and animal world. The smell of the sea is in the atmosphere, even though
+the sea is yet distant. No longer do our eyes wander over boundless
+expanses of rolling prairie, crowned to the highest knolls with
+wheat-fields, as on the other side of the mountains. The mountains fall
+away, and low bottoms, sometimes oozy with the inflowing river or the
+creeks from the forests, stretch away in the lazy, hazy distance. The
+River no longer flows tumultuously and with that militant energy which is
+so characteristic of the long stretches from Kettle Falls to The Dalles.
+It has a calm and stately majesty, the repose of accomplished warfare and
+victory. It has hewn its way down to the level of the ocean and no longer
+needs to fret and storm. It has conquered a peace.
+
+[Illustration: Band of Elk on W. P. Reser's Ranch, Walla Walla, Wash.
+Photo. by W. D. Chapman.]
+
+Below Rooster Rock, the shores are flats with low hills in the background,
+and the River expands to a width of from one to two miles. If we still
+imagine ourselves in a small boat, we find the most delightful of
+sensations in gliding past the grassy islands and shores thick with fir or
+cottonwood. Or if we choose to take our way to one of the elegant
+steamers, _Spencer_ or _Bailey Gatzert_, we shall still partake of the
+same life and feel the same sense of repose and contentment which belong
+by natural right to this portion of the River.
+
+Soon after leaving Rooster Rock, we begin to pass frequent pleasant farms
+on either bank. On the Washington side we see two pretty villages,
+Washougal and La Camas. The first has the historical distinction of being
+at or nearly at the highest spot reached by the English explorer Broughton
+in 1792, and named by him Point Vancouver. La Camas is the location of the
+most extensive paper mills in the North-west.
+
+If, while we are in this section of the River and our eyes are bent
+eagerly forward to catch the ever-changing shore and river lines, we
+happen to glance backward, our gaze is fastened as with a magnet, and for
+a moment utterance fails. For what do we see? Glistening white, ethereal,
+Mt. Hood rises before us, a vision which, of the many mountain visions
+that we have seen, seems the most beautiful. Mt. Hood indeed is the
+background of many a noble scene upon the River, but there is none quite
+equal in amplitude, in variety, to this,--River, forest, shore, foreground
+of timbered hills, Cascade Gorge, distant white and purple chain of
+Cascade Mountains, and the volcanic cone overtopping and overawing all.
+This view of Mt. Hood from the vicinity of La Camas has perhaps been
+oftener the subject of painting than any other.
+
+A few miles below La Camas we reach the most historic and perhaps the most
+beautiful spot upon the Columbia, Vancouver. As the capital for twenty
+years of the Hudson's Bay Company's Fur Empire, associated with the name
+of Dr. John McLoughlin, the centre of almost every event of importance in
+the early history, connected with both American and British occupation,
+and later as the location of the United States military post and
+preserving the names of Grant, Sheridan, McClellan, Hooker, and others of
+our famous generals, Vancouver has indeed a rich historic setting. But
+aside from such associations with the past, every tourist must note the
+location of Vancouver as one of rare beauty. In fact, the spot is almost
+ideal for a great city. The splendid River, a mile and a half in width,
+offers limitless facilities for shipping, while, beginning at the water's
+edge, a gradually rising slope of land extends in a superb swell several
+miles to the north. Every feature of scenery that could delight the
+eye--Mt. Hood with the Cascades to the east, the Willamette Valley to the
+south, the Portland and Scappoose hills to the west, the River blending
+all--seems to have been lavished on Vancouver. It has been a surprise to
+many that the great city had not grown here rather than at Portland,
+which, though on an equally fine location, is on the tributary and much
+smaller Willamette. The chief reasons of this were the nearer proximity of
+Portland to the rich farming country of the Tualatin and the presence in
+the Columbia a mile below Vancouver of a sand-bar which embarrassed
+shipping. This is now removed.
+
+[Illustration: Oregon City in 1845. From an Old Print.]
+
+[Illustration: Fort Vancouver in 1845.]
+
+At Vancouver the newly-built "North Bank" Railroad (Spokane, Portland, and
+Seattle) has constructed across the Columbia a bridge a mile and three
+quarters in length, said to be the largest and costliest of its kind in
+the world. This same railroad has also bridged the Willamette a few miles
+west of Vancouver, thus effecting an entrance to Portland. This railroad
+is one of the most interesting and remarkable undertakings of the age. It
+is said that its cost from Spokane to Portland exceeded forty million
+dollars. Vancouver expects much from this road, even anticipating that
+much of the shipping hitherto centring in Portland will be diverted to the
+larger river. However that may prove, it is plain that Vancouver has the
+promise as well as the memory of great things.
+
+Six miles west of Vancouver is one of those imposing scenes in which our
+River so abounds. This is the junction of the Willamette with the
+Columbia. This spot was noted by Broughton in 1792 as one of exceptional
+beauty, and to it he attached the name Belle Vue Point. It is indeed a
+combination of both historical and scenic interest. The Willamette steals
+shyly and coquettishly through green islands to fall into the strong arms
+of the stately Columbia. The western arm of the Willamette, commonly
+called the "Slough," joins the Columbia eighteen miles below at the
+picturesque little town of St. Helens. Between the Columbia and the Slough
+lies Sauvie's Island, named from a Hudson's Bay man, and famous throughout
+Hudson's Bay times as well as Indian times. The island was the seat of
+power of the Multnomah tribe. The scene of the book known as the _Bridge
+of the Gods_ by Frederick Balch is mainly upon this island, and in that
+book will be found some glowing descriptions of this beauty spot. To the
+Indians it was known as Wapatoo Island. In the ponds grew the plant called
+the wapatoo, an onion-like root, very nutritious and palatable, and, with
+salmon, constituting the chief food of the natives. Not only so, but the
+Multnomah Indians used the wapatoo as a commercial stock, carrying on
+regular trade with both the coast and the up-river tribes.
+
+According to the early explorers there were great annual fairs on Wapatoo
+Island, when Indians from ocean beach, from valley, from mountains, and
+from River, both up and down, would gather to exchange products, to
+gamble, race horses and boats, and have a general period of hilarity and
+good fellowship.
+
+The gathering of the wapatoos developed upon the patient "klootchmen"
+(women) of the tribe. They would go out in canoes to the shallow water
+where the roots grew and then, stripping naked, would hang over the side
+of the boat and dislodge the wapatoos with their toes from the soft mud.
+Soon the surface would be covered with the floating roots. The squaws
+would gather these into the canoes. Then they would move to another place
+for another load. Sometimes they would spend almost the whole day in the
+water. The wapatoo still grows in the ponds and lagoons of the island.
+These ponds formerly abounded in ducks and geese and cranes and swans.
+Even yet there is fine hunting. During the damp soft days of the Oregon
+winter, the Nimrods of Portland betake themselves thither in great
+numbers.
+
+[Illustration: Lone Rock, Columbia River, about Fifty Miles East of
+Portland. Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.]
+
+From the steamer, as we enter the mouth of the Willamette, or from the
+greater elevation of the lighthouse, one may command one of the lordliest
+views that even this land of lordly views affords. Five snow-peaks, Hood,
+Rainier-Tacoma, St. Helens, Adams, and Jefferson, rise snow white from the
+purple forests of the Cascade Range. Up the Columbia the great gorge
+through which we have passed stands open to view, while down-river the
+sinuous and hazy lines of low-lying shore betoken the nearer proximity of
+the ocean. Up the Willamette, enchanting islands, with low watery shores,
+occupy the foreground, while a short distance back from the western bank,
+a chain of picturesque hills, heavily timbered, encloses the vista. On the
+east side a low bench with bluffy promontories, crowned with the beautiful
+smooth-barked madrona tree, rises from the green meadows.
+
+If we could, from so fair an entrance, ascend the Willamette to its source
+in the Cascade Mountains two hundred miles away, and if we could turn
+into the Tualatin, the Yamhill, the Clackamas, the Molalla, the La
+Creole, the Santiam, the Calapooia, affluents worthy of union with the
+Willamette, and if we could tarry among the vales and meadows and
+oak-crowned hills and distant Coast and Cascade ranges of mountains, all
+across that superb valley, fifty miles wide by a hundred and fifty long,
+as beautiful as Greece or Italy,--we would then all agree that the
+Willamette deserves a volume by itself and that it is almost a crime to
+introduce it so briefly here. Every old Oregonian, in thinking of the
+Willamette, at once associates it with the apostrophe to it by S. L.
+Simpson, the gifted and unfortunate poet of Oregon, whose genius deserved
+a wider recognition than it ever received. The first stanza of his poem is
+this:
+
+    From the Cascades' frozen gorges,
+    Leaping like a child at play,
+    Winding, widening through the valley,
+    Bright Willamette glides away.
+      Onward ever, lovely River,
+      Softly calling to the sea,
+    Time that scars us, maims and mars us,
+    Leaves no track or trench on thee.
+
+And now that we have fairly entered the Willamette, it becomes speedily
+evident that we are in the near vicinity of a large and prosperous city.
+Steamboats, an occasional steamship, sailing ships, sometimes huge
+four-masted steel ships towed by coughing tugs, long booms of logs in tow
+of some spluttering stern-wheeler, scows of every description, gasoline
+launches, rowboats,--a motley fleet, they seem to be making they way with
+all possible haste upon the stream.
+
+[Illustration: Willamette Falls, Oregon City, Ore. Photo. by E. H.
+Moorehouse.]
+
+We are indeed approaching Portland, the metropolis of the Columbia, the
+"Rose City," in many respects the most interesting and attractive of
+Western cities. The approach to Portland is one hard to match for stately
+beauty. The city occupies both sides of the Willamette, the main business
+part on the west side, but the larger residence part on the east.
+
+The first settler on the original site of Portland was a man named
+Overton. Lownsdale, Chapman, and Lovejoy bought him out. Then Captain John
+H. Couch in 1845 located a donation land claim on what is now the northern
+part of the west side city. At that time the site was somewhat cut up with
+gulches and clothed in the densest of dense forests, with perfect jungles
+of every species of undergrowth. But duller eyes than those of the gallant
+mariners, Couch, Flanders, Ainsworth, Pettygrove, and Lovejoy, could have
+seen beneath the tangled thickets the making of a city, though it may well
+be questioned whether even they, in their wildest flights of fancy, ever
+pictured the scene of to-day, where the city of these sixty years'
+building now sits, a queen upon her circling throne of hills. The location
+of Portland is almost ideal. The hills to the west rise to a height of
+about eight hundred feet, but many fine homes are located there, and car
+lines cross the hills in many directions. Above the fogs and smoke these
+high-line homes have every possible charm. On the east side of the
+Willamette the land is a level bench with limitless room for expansion.
+There are a few picturesque elevations on the east side, as Mt. Tabor and
+Mt. Scott, and these have been used for homes with the taste which
+characterises the entire city.
+
+Portland is the centre of every species of transportation facility. It has
+one of the most extensive and well-equipped electric railway systems in
+the United States. In addition to the urban lines, there are interurban
+lines in every direction, to Vancouver, Troutdale, Oregon City, Milwaukee,
+Hillsboro, and Salem, the last named the capital of the State and fifty
+miles distant. We find also that four transcontinental railroads have a
+terminus in Portland, the Southern Pacific, the Northern Pacific, the
+Union Pacific, and the Great Northern. Steamship lines run to Alaska,
+Puget Sound, San Francisco and other California ports, to all the
+coastwise ports of Oregon, to the Hawaiian Islands and the Orient, and to
+Mexico and South America. Sailing ships convey the products of the
+North-west to all the ports of the world.
+
+As a result of these facilities for commerce we find such figures as the
+following: During the year 1907 there entered and cleared at Portland
+twelve hundred and twenty ocean-going vessels, registering more than
+1,700,000 tons, net, and with a carrying capacity of 3,500,000 tons. In
+the cargoes of this total, were 175,000,000 feet of lumber and 18,000,000
+bushels of wheat, flour included. Portland has in fact reached the front
+rank as a wheat and flour shipping port, being in the class with Galveston
+and New York, some of the time having led both of them. In December, 1907,
+Portland's record of wheat shipments, exclusive of flour, was 3,000,000
+bushels. The Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor
+gave the value of all breadstuffs shipped from Portland for the eleven
+months ending November 30, 1907, at $10,536,234. During the same period
+the shipments of the same commodities from San Francisco totalled
+$4,143,592, while from the three Puget Sound ports of Seattle, Tacoma, and
+Everett, the aggregate was $13,989,178. During November, 1908, there were
+shipped 903,000 bushels of wheat, 180,145 barrels of flour, 209,246
+bushels of barley, and 9,752,552 feet of lumber. During the year 1908 the
+value of wheat and flour reached a total of $18,340,405, while the lumber
+exports aggregated 162,089,998 feet.
+
+[Illustration: Among the Big Spruce Trees, near Astoria, Oregon. Photo. by
+Woodfield, Astoria.]
+
+Perhaps the most gratifying feature of the shipping trade to Portland
+people has been the increase in the size of ships entering the River. In
+1872 the average wheat cargo exported was 33,615 bushels, while now it is
+four times as much. The record cargo was that of the British bark
+_Andorinha_, in the fall of 1908, 189,282 bushels. The channel from
+Portland to the Columbia Bar and that across the Bar have so much improved
+that no lightering was necessary during the year 1908, and ships of
+twenty-five and twenty-six feet draft have gone from Portland to the ocean
+without difficulty. In connection with this fact we are told that in June,
+1907, the International Sailing-ship Owners' Union abolished the
+differential of thirty cents per ton which had stood for some years
+against Portland. These conditions, together with the completion of the
+North Bank Railroad, by which a greatly added traffic from the Inland
+Empire will be turned to Portland, seem to indicate that Portland is on
+the direct road to a greater commercial leadership than she has yet known.
+The lumber industry centring in Portland is as remarkable as that of
+grain. Oregon's available forests, according to Government estimates,
+reach a total of three hundred billion feet, board measure. It is
+estimated that during the years 1906-8 the lumber cut in Oregon reached
+about two billion feet each year, of which about one fifth was sawed in
+Portland. It is asserted, in fact, that Portland is the largest lumber
+producing city in the world. Lumbermen believe that it is only a question
+of a few years when Portland will cut a billion feet of lumber a year.
+While grain and lumber are the great articles of export from Portland,
+there are vast totals of fruit, hay, live-stock, dairy and poultry
+products, fish, and manufactured articles of many kinds.
+
+But to the thoughtful traveller it is of more interest to see the use made
+of wealth than the wealth itself. Portland now contains about two hundred
+thousand people, said to have more per capita wealth than any other city,
+with two exceptions, in the United States. What are these people doing
+with their accumulations? For answer the traveller visits the schools, the
+public buildings, the churches, the stores, the places of amusement, the
+homes, and he finds every evidence of taste, good judgment, refinement,
+and artistic skill. The Portland Hotel, the _Oregonian_ building, the
+Marquam Grand Theatre, the Marquam building, the Chamber of Commerce
+building, the Corbett block, the Wells-Fargo building, the First
+Congregational, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Baptist churches and Jewish
+Synagogue, the Union Depot, the City Hall, the City Library,--these and
+many other structures challenge the admiration of travellers from even the
+best-built cities of the East. During the year 1907, building permits were
+issued to an amount exceeding nine million dollars, of which nearly half
+was expended for dwelling houses. Portland is indeed a city of homes, and
+workingmen own their own houses to an unusual degree.
+
+[Illustration: Portland in 1908. Mt. St. Helens, Sixty-five Miles
+Distant.]
+
+As the visitor traverses Portland's streets, he sees amply demonstrated
+the propriety of the cognomen, the "Rose City." Almost every yard boasts
+its roses, and on almost every porch the scarlet rambler or some other
+climber casts its rich colouring. Soil and climate are said to produce an
+ideal combination for the finest grades of roses, as well as of many other
+species of flowers. The Portland Fair of 1905 was the means of beautifying
+a section of the city near Macley Park. While most of the structures were
+of a temporary nature, the unique and interesting Forestry building has
+been left, and this is a rare attraction to the Eastern visitor. The two
+tasteful and significant groups of statuary, _The Coming of the White Men_
+and _Sacajawea_, still grace the spot where they were dedicated. Portland
+contains many other attractive works of art at available points. Among
+these is the Skidmore Fountain, on one of the most crowded thoroughfares
+of the city, a real gem of art.
+
+No visitor to Portland should fail to visit the City Hall and the valuable
+and interesting historical collection of the Oregon Historical Society.
+Mr. George H. Himes, the Secretary of the Society, has devoted years to
+the gathering of this museum of pioneer relics. Some of them are
+priceless. Here is the first printing press in Oregon, used for some years
+by Rev. H. M. Spalding at the Nez Perce Mission. Here is Mrs. Whitman's
+writing desk. Here is Captain Robert Gray's sea-chest. The ages of
+discovery, of the fur-traders, of the missionaries, of the pioneers, are
+all lived over again in the inspection of these relics.
+
+Probably most people who have followed the course of public thought and
+action in the West, if asked what agency and what man would first come
+into their minds at the mention of the name of Portland, would answer at
+once,--"The _Oregonian_ and its editor, Harvey Scott." This great journal
+and its great editor, associated together most of the time for over forty
+years, have indeed constituted one of the most potent forces in framing
+the thoughts and the institutions of the Columbia River people. It is
+frequently said that Harvey Scott and Henry Watterson are the only great
+American editors yet remaining of the old type, the type of a personal
+intellectual force and a public teacher. The present type of editor is
+rather an advertising manager than a political and social leader, a
+business man rather than a generator of ideas.
+
+There are many additional features of interest in and around Portland.
+Whether viewed artistically, commercially, financially, socially, or
+historically, this fair metropolis of the Columbia River Empire is in a
+class by herself. Only by personal acquaintance can the student of the
+West satisfy himself as to Portland.
+
+But once more we must address ourselves to the River. One may go to
+Astoria by rail down the southern bank, or he may, if he prefer, as we
+certainly do, go by water. He can go by almost every species of boat known
+to man, from an ocean steamship to one of the lateen-sailed fishing boats
+which abound on the lower River.
+
+When we have retraced our course to the mouth of the Willamette and have
+again committed ourselves to the oceanward flow of the Columbia, we find a
+continuance of the same low, oozy, and verdant banks, the same timbered
+hills on either side in the middle distance, and the same dominant
+snow-peaks and unbroken Cascade Range in the farthest background. We pass
+many little towns, whose leading occupations are manifestly lumbering and
+fishing. We try to live over again the sensations which we think must have
+been felt by Lewis and Clark or Broughton, as they, first of civilised
+men, lifted the veil from this solitude.
+
+[Illustration: Portland Harbour, Oregon. Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse,
+Portland.]
+
+In this section of the River there are no stupendous pinnacles as in the
+Gorge of the Cascades. Yet the scenery is infinitely varied, and although
+less bold, it is, in its way, equally attractive with the loftier scene.
+One unique spot attracts the eye, and almost recalls the beauty of Rooster
+Rock. This is Mt. Coffin, on the Washington side, near the mouth of the
+Cowlitz River. This was one of the "Memaloose" or sepulture places of the
+Indians. There in early times their dead, in great numbers, were deposited
+upon platforms after the usual Indian fashion.
+
+After passing the ingress of the Cowlitz, we find the River widening to
+yet grander proportions. Islands become numerous. Among these islands not
+a few desperate affrays and even tragedies have occurred among warring
+fishermen, union against non-union. Lurking among these islands, too, are
+numerous unlicensed vendors of spirits. In the uncertainty as to which of
+the States may have jurisdiction at places, these illicit traffickers move
+from island to island and cove to cove and one overhanging forest to
+another, evading officers of both States and of Federal Government alike.
+Sometime a novelist will be inspired with the poetry and humour and
+tragedy and pathos of this fisher life on the lower River, with its
+mingling of the life of law-breaker and desperado, and this section of our
+River will blossom into literature and find a place with the moonshiners
+of the South and the cowboys of the Rockies. All the material is ready.
+The River waits only for its Owen Wister or Hamlin Garland or Jack London
+to introduce it to the world of readers.
+
+But the River moves and we must move with it. Many signs indicate to us
+that we are approaching the ocean. If we are moving in a small boat, we
+may pause to camp under some one of the thick-topped spruce trees whose
+stiff spicules pierce our unwary hands like pins. If we should spend a
+night we would find the water heaving and falling two, four, or five feet,
+with the ocean tides. Broader and broader grows the River. Numerous salmon
+canneries and seining stations appear. Passing a fishing village on the
+north bank called Brookfield, we notice a very curious rock, Pillar Rock,
+in the River a quarter of a mile from shore. It rises forty feet directly
+out of the water. We are told by one versed in Indian lore that this is
+the transformed body of a chief who tried to imitate the god Speelyei by
+wading across the River. For his presumption he was turned into a rock.
+
+Soon after passing Pillar Rock we see the curious spectacle of a house on
+piles apparently right in the middle of the River. More curious still, we
+see horses seemingly engaged in drawing a load through the very water
+itself. The mystery is soon solved. The house is built on a sand-bar. It
+is a seining station. The horses are pulling a seine from its moorings at
+the point of the sand-bar to the point where its load may be discharged.
+Lumber, salmon, and water,--this is the world in which we now live and
+move and have our being.
+
+[Illustration: Fish River Road, in Upper Columbia Region, B. C. Photo. by
+Trueman, Victoria.]
+
+We next enter a broad expanse of the River, nine miles wide, on the north
+side of which is a deep cove. There is the historic spot in which Robert
+Gray on May 3, 1792, paused at his highest point to fill his water casks
+and to float the Stars and Stripes over Oregon, claimed for the United
+States of America. As we look westward, the headlands seem to part in
+front of us, and between them sky and water join. The greatest ocean is
+before us, though still twenty miles away. The River has reached the end
+of his fourteen-hundred-mile journey. Soon we pass, on the Oregon side,
+the bold promontory of Tongue Point, and Astoria, the second largest city
+on the navigable waters of the Columbia, is before us.
+
+To the history of this oldest American town west of the Rocky Mountains we
+have already referred many times. Interesting in so many features of the
+past, Astoria is full of problems and suggestions, commercial and
+otherwise, for the present and the future. The city has grown slowly,
+always wondering why Portland should have so outstripped her. She
+certainly has such a location that it seems a crime not to utilise it for
+a great city. The River is here five miles wide. Upon its ample flood all
+the navies of the world might ride at anchor, sheltered from the sea by
+the long low sand-ridge of Point Adams. The site of the city, though
+somewhat rugged and broken, is entirely capable of reduction to a
+convenient grade, and is singularly noble and commanding. From the plateau
+three hundred feet high upon which the splendid waterworks are located, is
+a view of imposing grandeur;--River in front, dense forest to rear, with
+the blue saddle and pinnacled horn of Saddle Mountain,--Swallalochost in
+Indian speech, with its thunder-bird of native myth,--and the ocean to the
+west. We find Astoria to be a well-built city of about fifteen thousand
+permanent inhabitants, with perhaps five or six thousand more during the
+height of the fishing season. Almost every resource of industry offers
+itself in this favoured region about the mouth of the River. Though the
+country is densely timbered in its native state, the soil is such that
+when cleared it is of the finest for dairy and vegetable purposes. The
+mildness of the climate keeps the clover and grass green and the flowers
+in bloom the long year through.
+
+As might be expected the chief industries as yet developed are lumbering
+and fishing. There are magnificent forests of fir, spruce, cedar, and
+hemlock, in all directions, while in and around Astoria there are six
+immense establishments for transforming the timber into merchantable
+lumber. This lumber aggregates something like a hundred and twenty million
+feet annually, and it goes to all the ports of the world. There is
+occasionally floated to the bar and thence to San Francisco, a log-boom
+chained in substantial fashion and containing several million feet of
+logs. Such a great boom is one of the most curious sights of the
+River-mouth. But transcending all else in importance at Astoria is the
+business of canning and drying salmon. What silver is to the Coeur
+d'Alene, what wheat is to Walla Walla, what apples are to Hood River, that
+salmon are to Astoria. The people think, act, and reason in terms of
+salmon. And well they may. He who has not seen Chinook salmon from the
+Columbia River has not seen fish. Nay, he cannot even be said to have
+really lived in the larger sense of the term. Take a genuine Chinook
+salmon of fifty or sixty pounds, caught in June, fat, rich,
+glistening,--but words are a mockery. Nothing but the actual experience
+will convey the impression. The salmon output on the River has for some
+years run from two hundred and fifty thousand to five hundred thousand
+cases per year, twenty-four cans to the case. The amount dried and smoked
+represents something like an equal amount. This is for the River from
+Astoria to The Dalles. The great bulk of this, however, is put up at
+Astoria or in its immediate vicinity. It is estimated that from thirty
+million to forty million salmon are caught yearly on the Oregon side of
+the lower River. This represents a value of four or five million dollars,
+about half of this going to the fishermen and half to the cannerymen. Some
+ten thousand men are engaged in fishing about the mouth of the River.
+These men are largely Finns, Russians, Norsemen, Italians, Sicilians, and
+Greeks. They have various co-operative associations and are independent of
+the cannerymen, to whom they furnish the fish at some stipulated price,
+usually five cents a pound.
+
+[Illustration: Multnomah Falls, 840 Feet High, on South Side of Columbia
+River about Sixty Miles above Portland. Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse,
+Portland.]
+
+There are many tragedies at the mouth of the River. The best fishing is
+just off the Bar and the best time to draw the nets is at the turn of the
+tide. In a fishing boat in the chill of the early morning, the fishermen
+will frequently become benumbed and drowsy, and will neglect the critical
+moment. When the tide fairly turns on the Bar it runs out like a mill
+race, and woe to the boat that waits too long. It goes out to sea,
+reappearing perhaps, bottom-up, in the course of the day, with owners and
+cargo gone. Some experienced men have asserted that not less than a
+hundred fishermen are lost every summer. Many boats are now fitted with
+gasoline power, and loss of life is lessened thereby.
+
+To the visitor at the River's mouth the fairest sight of all in connection
+with the fishing industry is the incoming fleet of boats in the early
+morning, or the outgoing fleet of evening. On a June night it scarcely
+grows really dark at all, and as the faint glow of the north turns at two
+or three o'clock into the morning flush, the lateen sails can be seen like
+a flock of gulls on the rim of the ocean. When the full radiance of the
+dawn, with its bars of carmine and saffron, has "turned to yellow gold the
+salt-green streams," the fleet is within the outer headlands. Hundreds,
+sometimes thousands of them, a regular cloud of them, converge from all
+parts of the offing to the wharves of lower Astoria.
+
+With all its benefits the fishing industry brings almost infinite trouble.
+The two States of Oregon and Washington never agree on laws governing the
+periods of lawful fishing. Sometimes Federal authorities bear a part in
+the imbroglio. Gill-net men, seiners, fish-trap men, union men, non-union
+men, local, State, and Federal officials, all combine in one great general
+mix-up. In the midst of the confusion the countless salmon pursue their
+course up the River and its tributaries in summer, back to the ocean
+again in autumn. The Federal Government maintains fish hatcheries on a
+number of streams, and from them young salmon to the number of millions
+are turned out each year to replenish the diminishing supply.
+
+[Illustration: Chinook Salmon, Weight 80 Pounds. Photo. by Woodfield,
+Astoria.]
+
+A great and constantly growing tide of tourists from all parts of the
+Willamette Valley and the upper Columbia region go to Astoria during the
+summer. The fine steamers, _T. J. Potter_, _Hassalo_, _Charles D.
+Spencer_, and others of less size, convey these thousands of tourists to
+Astoria, while the railroad from Portland brings yet other thousands. From
+Astoria, the North Beach is reached by steamer to Ilwaco, and thence by
+rail to all points of the fishhook of land which extends from the northern
+headland of the River to the mouth of Willapa Harbour. During the season
+this beach is almost a continuous city from Cape Hancock to Leadbetter
+Point, twenty miles distant. Clatsop Beach on the south side of the River
+is reached by rail from Astoria. Every charm that an ocean resort can
+possess has been lavished on these two beaches on either side of the
+River. The bathing, boating, climbing, fishing, hunting, clamming,
+crabbing,--they are all there. To the population of that part of the River
+country east of the Cascades, the transition from the dust and heat of the
+summer to the cool and rest and freshness of the beach, with its breath
+from six thousand miles of unbroken sea, is almost like a change of scenes
+in a play. Both these beaches, especially Clatsop Beach, are the location
+of a rich store of Indian legend and romance. "Cheatcos" and "Skookums"
+haunt the forests, and the spirits of Tallapus and Nekahni and Quootshoi
+have been enthroned on every peak and cape.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All rivers must reach the sea, and all journeys must end. And so both our
+River and our journey find their end in the ocean. From Astoria we can see
+the outer headlands and the ocean space between. As we survey this merging
+of the Great River with the greater deep, our eyes turn in fancy to that
+clear, bright lake, fourteen hundred miles away in the snowy peaks of
+British Columbia, from which the River flows. And in imagination we view
+again the vistas of lagoons and islands, cliffs and glaciers, lakes and
+canyons, plains and forests, through which the Columbia takes its course,
+while once more the changing scenes of the historical drama associated
+with that splendid waterway are enacted before our eyes.
+
+[Illustration: Lake Adela, near Head of Columbia River, B. C. Photo. by C.
+F. Yates.]
+
+But now all these scenes and vistas must be left behind, and we must pass
+between the capes. The long sandspit of Point Adams lies on the south, and
+the bold rock-promontory of Cape Hancock on the north, seven miles apart,
+each crowned with a lighthouse. Between them we secure a view of the great
+jetty in course of construction by the Federal Government. This is one of
+the most important improvements in connection with the River. When this
+work, together with the canal and locks at Celilo, is completed, the River
+may be regarded as really navigable on a large scale. The work on the
+jetty was inaugurated soon after the jetty-building by Captain Eads at the
+mouth of the Mississippi River had drawn the favourable attention of
+people and Government to this method of deepening river mouths. The
+jetty consists of a double line of piling, filled with rock and mattresses
+of woven willows. This constitutes a solid core against which the current
+of the River on one side piles the silt, while on the other the ocean
+waves pound the sand into a permanent barrier-reef. The philosophy of it
+is so to narrow the entrance that the accelerated current of the River
+will scour out the channel to an increased depth. Piles have been set in
+place by an ingenious system of pneumatic pipes by which compressed air
+bores a hole in the sand. Into this hole the pile is dropped, and the
+sea-waves in a moment fill in and tamp the sand around it. Thus the ocean
+is made to fence itself out. Upon the jetty a railroad has been built, and
+a train, loaded with rock and willows, runs out on this every eleven
+minutes for dumping material into the space between the piles. Very
+gratifying results have already been secured. There is now a depth of
+twenty-six feet on the Bar at low water. The crest of the Bar has been cut
+much deeper at several narrow points, and this indicates the progress that
+may be expected. It is hoped that the completed jetty will maintain a
+permanent channel of forty feet at low water. In stormy weather the work
+on the jetty is difficult and dangerous. The impact of the Pacific waves
+when lashed by a sixty-mile "sou'-wester" is something terrific. Large
+sections of piling have been torn out, and much loss has resulted. But
+patience and money triumph over all obstacles, and the work goes steadily
+on. Some conception of the magnitude of the commerce to be accommodated by
+this great work may be formed from the fact that in the year 1907 the
+freight handled on the lower River by both river and ocean vessels
+amounted to 4,251,681 tons, valued at $76,583,804. This is but a fraction
+of what will come with the full development of the Columbia Valley and
+with the needed improvements to navigation. The Federal Government
+maintains life-saving stations on both sides of the River. Many a tale of
+daring could these heroes of the beach tell, should we stop to question
+them.
+
+We are at the point of the jetty. The buoys rise and fall behind us. The
+horrible blare of the fog-horn sounds across the thunder of the surf, as
+we cross the imaginary line from headland to headland. Sea-captains tell
+us that ten miles from the River's mouth--so powerfully does the mighty
+current cleave the sea--they can dip up fresh water. But now, to west and
+north and south, the deep blue, though crossed by the pale green of the
+River water, assures us that we are fairly upon the Bar. The River of the
+West is all behind us. If it be very clear, we can just discern upon the
+horizon's verge, cameo-like and glistening white, Mt. Hood, monarch of the
+Oregon Cascades, for ever standing guard over the disappearing River.
+
+[Illustration: Bridal Veil Bluff, Columbia River, Ore. Photo. by E. H.
+Moorehouse, Portland.]
+
+As the shore line grows vague, it would not be difficult for the
+imagination to conjure up the navigators of the Old World who sailed these
+seas, then unknown seas of mystery and romance. Looming up through the
+ocean mists we may see strange ships and stranger crews emerge,--junks
+with Oriental castaways swept hither by storms and ocean currents;
+caravels with the dauntless sailors of the sixteenth century; buccaneers
+and pirates, a motley flotilla. Then the stout crafts of Drake, Behring,
+Heceta, Cook, Malaspina, Valdez, Bodega, Vancouver, La Perouse; ships of
+discovery, of trade, of war, of adventure, of science; flags of Spain, of
+Russia, of Portugal, of France, of England;--on they throng from the hazy
+Pacific rim toward the Oregon shore. And soon we seem to see, circling
+around them, canoes with their red-skinned paddlers from the River's
+mouth. But ships and flags, explorers and natives, fade like a dissolving
+view. In their place appears a gallant bark, with banner streaming free.
+What ship? What banner? The _Columbia Rediviva_, and the Stars and
+Stripes--the flag that still waves over the land of the Oregon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now our vessel rises and falls upon the long swell of the Pacific. Our
+journey on the Columbia River is ended, and we are upon the open sea.
+
+[Illustration: Band of Kootenai Indians, B. C. Photo. by Allan Lean,
+Nelson.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  A
+
+  Abernethy, Clark & Co., builders of steamers on Columbia, 236
+
+  Abernethy, George, first Provisional Governor, 194
+
+  Adams, Mount, origin of, in Indian myth, 22-24;
+    elevation of, 358;
+    caves of, 359;
+    sport in vicinity, 360;
+    structure of, 361-362;
+    storm on, 364;
+    ascent of, 365-366;
+    views from, 366-368
+
+  Aguilar, Martin, Spanish explorer, 44-45
+
+  Ainsworth, J. C., first captain of steamer _Lot Whitcomb_, 235;
+    joins new company, 237;
+    skill in running rapids, 243
+
+  _Albatross_, ship connected with Winship enterprise, 109-11
+
+  American Board of Foreign Missions undertakes work for Oregon Indians,
+      145
+
+  Applegate, Jesse, disasters of family on Columbia River, 174;
+    extract from pioneer address, 178
+
+  Armstrong, Capt. F. P., trip on Kootenai River, 280-281
+
+  Arrow Lakes, steamboat journey on, 292;
+    scenery of, 293 _et seq._
+
+  Arteaga, voyage on the Alaskan coast, 55
+
+  Astor, John Jacob, founder of Pacific Fur Co., 89;
+    establishes company at Astoria, 113;
+    his plans and mistakes, 115-116
+
+  Astoria, founding of, 120;
+    restored to United States, 125, 182;
+    amplitude of harbour, 389;
+    scenery of surroundings, 390;
+    industries of, 390-391;
+    fishing fleets, 392;
+    resorts adjoining, 393
+
+  Astoria and Columbia River Railroad, 362
+
+
+  B
+
+  Baker, Dr. D. S., railroad builder, 363-364
+
+  _Baker, D. S._, the steamer, running the Dalles, 243
+
+  _Bailey Gatzert_, steamer on Columbia River, 248
+
+  Balch, Frederick, his story, _The Bridge of the Gods_, 22
+
+  Bancroft, H. H., discussion of loss of _Tonquin_, 203
+
+  Banff, attraction as a resort, 274
+
+  Bannock Indian War, 233
+
+  Barlow, S. K., building road across Cascade Mountains, 176
+
+  Barrell, Joseph, originator of fur company at Boston, 102
+
+  Bassett, W. F., first gold discovery in Idaho, 253
+
+  Bateaux, description of, 134
+
+  Baughman, Capt., pilot on Columbia and Snake Rivers, 241
+
+  _Beaver_, vessel of the Pacific Fur Company, 123-124
+
+  _Beaver_, first steamship on Columbia River, 235
+
+  Beers, Alanson, members of Executive Committee of Provisional
+      Government, 194
+
+  "Beeswax Ship," story of, 41-42
+
+  Behring, Vitus, explorations on Pacific Coast, 50-51
+
+  Belcher, Sir Edward, expedition to Columbia River, 164
+
+  _Belle_, steamer on Columbia River, 236
+
+  Benton, Thomas H., expressions in regard to Oregon, 187;
+    special advocate for Oregon, 197
+
+  Bishop, B. B., steamboat builder on Columbia River, 235
+
+  Blakeney, Capt., in charge of steamer _Isabel_ on Upper Columbia, 278
+
+  Blalock, Dr. N. G., connection with large enterprises, 328
+
+  Blanchet, Rev. F. N., book on Catholic Missions, 154;
+    journey to Oregon, 155;
+    locates in Willamette Valley, 155
+
+  Blanchet, Rev. Magloire, Catholic Mission at Walla Walla, 157
+
+  Boas, Dr. Franz, investigator of Indian legends, 35
+
+  Bodega, first voyage, 51;
+    later voyage, 55
+
+  Bonneville, Capt. E. L. E., organises trading company, 161;
+    makes explorations on Columbia River, 162;
+    meets Washington Irving, 162
+
+  Bradford, Daniel, steamboat building on Columbia River, 235
+
+  Bradford & Co., steamboat line on Columbia River, 236
+
+  Broughton, Lieut. W. R., in command of the _Chatham_, 62;
+    entrance of Columbia River and exploration, 66-67;
+    erroneous statements, 67-68
+
+  Buchanan, James, course in regard to boundary of Oregon, 199
+
+  Bullfinch, account of American fur-trade, 101
+
+  Burnett, Peter, speech to immigrants, 169;
+    governor of California, 170;
+    opinion in regard to Provisional Government, 195
+
+
+  C
+
+  Cabinet Rapids, 321
+
+  Cabrillo, navigator on coast of California, 43
+
+  Calhoun, John C., attitude on Oregon question, 186;
+    peculiar situation of, 198-199
+
+  Cameahwait, chief of Shoshone Indians, meeting with Lewis and Clark
+      party, 77;
+    finding Sacajawea, 78
+
+  Canadian boatmen, their skill and gayety, 132-133
+
+  Canadian Pacific Railroad, route of, over Rocky Mts., 274;
+    over Selkirks, 285-286;
+    excellence of management, 288;
+    steamboats on lakes, 292
+
+  Canadian Rockies, character of, and steepness of descent, 275
+
+  Canoes, 133
+
+  Cape Horn, 349
+
+  _Carolina_, steamer crossing Columbia Bar, 235
+
+  Cascades, a dividing line, 340;
+    historic and physical interest of, 340;
+    locks, 341;
+    first notice of tide, 341;
+    fish-wheels and spearmen, 342
+
+  Cascade Mountains, general description, 12-13;
+    the great peaks, 13-14;
+    valleys on east side, 14;
+    valleys on west side, 15-16;
+    cleft by Columbia River, 333
+
+  Cass, Senator, speech in regard to Oregon, 199
+
+  Castle Rock, unique appearance, 343;
+    ascents of, 344;
+    cave and arrowheads, 346
+
+  Catlin, George, account of Indians who sought "Book of Life," 138
+
+  Cayuse War, beginning, 210;
+    ending, 212
+
+  Celiast, Indian woman, 34
+
+  Champoeg, meetings for Provisional Government, 192-193
+
+  Chelan Lake, type of Columbian lakes, 298;
+    first appearance, 299;
+    glacial origin, 300;
+    depth of canyon, 300;
+    comparison with other scenes, 300-301;
+    storms on, 301-302;
+    sunset on, 303
+
+  Chemeketa, the Indian council ground, 142
+
+  Chinook wind, legend of, 24-27
+
+  Chittenden, Major H. M., book on American fur-trade, 203
+
+  Choteau, Pierre and Auguste, founding of St. Louis, 108
+
+  _Christian Advocate_, account of Indians looking for "Book of Life," 137
+
+  Clark, William, lieutenant of exploring party, 73;
+    Indians think him "medicine man," 82;
+    Indians looking for "Book of Life," 136-137
+
+  Clarke, Gen. N. S., in command of Columbia, 224
+
+  Clatsop Plains, favourite resort of Indians, 34
+
+  Clay, Henry, attitude on Oregon question, 186
+
+  Coe, Capt. Lawrence, building steamer _Colonel Wright_, 235;
+    account of first trip on upper Columbia and Snake Rivers, 243-244
+
+  Coeur d'Alene, Lake, as a resort, 297;
+    its mines, 298
+
+  Colleges founded as result of missions, 157
+
+  _Colonel Wright_, the steamer, on upper Columbia, 235;
+    makes first trip on upper rivers, 243-244
+
+  Columbia Basin, forces that wrought it, 6-7;
+    general description, 10-15;
+    climate, 17-18
+
+  Columbia River, many names, 3;
+    early attracts attention, 4;
+    connection with Kootenai River, 11;
+    tomanowas bridge, 21;
+    damming at Cascades, 21-22;
+    discovery by Heceta, 55;
+    discovered and named by Robert Gray, 64;
+    results of discovery, 65;
+    first navigation by Lewis and Clark party, 82;
+    falls passed by party, 83;
+    submerged forests, 84;
+    descent by Lewis and Clark, 84-85;
+    first sight by Hunt's party, 95;
+    _Tonquin_ on bar, 117;
+    forts on, 129-131;
+    crossing of Bar by the ship, _L'Indefatigable_, 156;
+    descent by immigrants of 1843, 172-174;
+    description of Bar by Provost, 184;
+    massacres upon, by Indians, 221;
+    steamboat business, 239 _et seq._;
+    first steamboats on lower part, 235;
+    on upper part, 243;
+    railroads along, 261-262;
+    navigability of, 266;
+    prospective traffic of, 267-269;
+    character above Golden, 278 _et seq._;
+    character below Golden, 285;
+    lakes of, 291 _et seq._;
+    from Robson to Kettle Falls, 296;
+    from Kettle Falls to Wenatchee, 298;
+    rapids and shores from Wenatchee to Pasco, 321;
+    irrigating enterprises, 323-324;
+    between Pasco and The Dalles, 328-329;
+    canal, 330;
+    section beginning at The Dalles, 234-236;
+    peculiar character at Cascades, 239;
+    tomanowas bridge, 340;
+    compared with other scenes, 350;
+    appearance below Rooster Rock, 374;
+    between Portland and the ocean, 387-389;
+    farewell to, 396
+
+  Columbia River Navigation Co., 237
+
+  _Columbia_, the steamer, on River, 235
+
+  Condon, Professor Thomas, geological theories, 5
+
+  Cook, Capt. James, journey on Oregon coast, 55;
+    death, 56
+
+  Cortereal, Gaspar, Straits of Anian, 43
+
+  Coxe, account of fur-trade, 100
+
+  Coyote god, fight with Kamiah monster, 19-21
+
+  Coyote Head, 337
+
+  Crooks, Ramsay, partner of Pacific Fur Co., 89;
+    hard experience with Indians, 96
+
+  Culliby Lake, 42
+
+  Cultee, Charley, Indian story teller, 35
+
+  Curry, Governor, calling for volunteers, 221
+
+
+  D
+
+  Dalles, The, historical interest of, 330;
+    varied resources of, 330-331;
+    scenery, 331
+
+  Day, John, treatment by Indians and death, 96-97
+
+  Dayton, Congressman, expressions about Oregon, 187
+
+  Dawson, Professor, explanation of sources of Columbia, 278
+
+  De Haro at Nootka, 55
+
+  De May in battle of Pine Creek, 227
+
+  Demers, Rev. Modest, missionary to Indians, 155
+
+  De Smet, Rev. Pierre J., books on Catholic missions, 154;
+    in Northern Idaho, 155;
+    in Europe for reinforcements, 156;
+    crossing Bar, 156
+
+  Disoway, G. P., account of Indians who sought "Book of Life," 137
+
+  Dixson, figures on profits of fur-trade, 102
+
+  Donation Land Law attracts immigration, 177
+
+  Dorion, Madame, desperate situation in Blue Mountains, 126
+
+  Drake, Francis, explorations, 44
+
+
+  E
+
+  _Eagle_, steamer above Cascades, 235;
+    rescuing victims of Indian war, 236
+
+  Edwards, Rev. P. L., associate missionary, 141
+
+  Eells, Rev. Cushing, missionary to Oregon Indians, 151;
+    locating at Tshimakain, 152
+
+  Elliott, S. G., first railroad surveys, 259
+
+  England, difficulty with Spain over Nootka Sound, 62
+
+
+  F
+
+  Farnham, T. J., in command of Peoria party, 164;
+    history of Oregon and California, 164
+
+  Ferrelo, explorations on the coast, 43
+
+  Field, mountain resort, 276
+
+  Fiske, Wilbur, leading missionary movements, 140
+
+  Florida Treaty with Spain, 184
+
+  Fonte, extravagant stories, 46
+
+  Fort Clatsop built by Lewis and Clark, 85
+
+  France, assistance to American colonies, 50
+
+  Franchere, Gabriel, history of Pacific Fur Co., 118;
+    founding of Astoria, 120;
+    account of destruction of _Tonquin_, 203
+
+  Fuca, Juan de, 44
+
+  Fur-trade, beginnings, 56-57;
+    on Oregon coast, 60-61;
+    connection with discoveries, 89;
+    historical importance, 99;
+    financial profits of, 103
+
+
+  G
+
+  Gale, Joseph, building of _Star of Oregon_, 166;
+    sails to California, 167;
+    on Executive Committee of Provisional Government, 194
+
+  Gale, William, on ship _Albatross_, 109;
+    extract from journal, 113
+
+  Galiano, voyage around Vancouver Island, 55
+
+  Garnett, Major, in Yakima War, 225
+
+  Gaston, Lieutenant, in battle of Pine Creek, 226
+
+  Gervais, Joseph, location in Oregon, 142
+
+  Ghent, Treaty of, 182
+
+  Gilliam, Cornelius, in Cayuse War, 201
+
+  Glacier, Canadian resort, 286-287
+
+  Glacier Lake, 310
+
+  Glacier Peak, 311
+
+  Golden on Columbia River, 277
+
+  Grande Ronde Valley, first view by Hunt Party, 94
+
+  Grant, Captain, attempting to keep back American immigration, 171
+
+  Gray, Capt. Robert, in command of _Lady Washington_, 60;
+    as a fur-trader, 61;
+    discovers Columbia River, 64
+
+  Gray, W. H., history of Oregon, 147;
+    characteristics, 149;
+    four sons, 149;
+    estimate of population, 188;
+    in Provisional Government, 190-191;
+    steamboat enterprises, 241;
+    adventure on Snake River 241
+
+  Gray, Capt. Wm. P., story of ascent of Snake River, 241;
+    trip down Snake River, 247
+
+  Great Britain, claims to Oregon, 180-181
+
+
+  H
+
+  Halhaltlossot, or Lawyer, 151
+
+  Hallakallakeen (Joseph), summer camp, 297
+
+  Hard winter of 1861, 257
+
+  _Hassalo_, the steamer, 235-237
+
+  _Hassalo, No. 2_, 248
+
+  Hathaway, Felix, building schooner, _Star of Oregon_, 166
+
+  Heceta, first voyage, 51;
+    discovery of Columbia River, 52-54
+
+  Henry, Andrew, trading post on Snake River, 108-109
+
+  Hickey, Capt. F., at restoration of Astoria, 125
+
+  Hill, David, on Executive Committee of Provisional Government, 194
+
+  Hill, J. J., railroad builder, 262
+
+  Holladay, Ben, president of Oregon Central Railroad, 259
+
+  Holmes, Oliver W., quotation, 275
+
+  Hood, Mount, origin of, in Indian myth, 22-24;
+    first appearance of, 333;
+    elevation, 354;
+    approach to, 354;
+    Cloud Cap Inn, 355;
+    view from, 356;
+    historic character of view, 357;
+    appearance from La Camas, 376
+
+  Hood River and Valley, appearance and productions of, 238
+
+  Howard, General O. O., in Nez Perce War of 1877, 230;
+    description of Joseph, 231
+
+  Hudson's Bay Company, organisation of, 104;
+    joined with North-western Fur Co., 107;
+    forts, 128 _et seq._;
+    boats and boatmen, 131-134;
+    policy toward Americans, 150-153;
+    attitude toward Provisional Government, 192, 195;
+    treatment of Dr. McLoughlin, 196
+
+  Hunt, Wilson P., forms land division of Pacific Fur Co., 89;
+    leader in journey, 92 _et seq._
+
+
+  I
+
+  Idaho, name of, 32;
+    reached by Lewis and Clark, 79-81;
+    first steamboat, 235;
+    gold discoveries, 252 _et seq._;
+    university, 315;
+    irrigation systems, 317
+
+  Illecillewaet River, 287
+
+  Immigration of 1843, beginnings, 168;
+    at Fort Hall, 171;
+    constructing flatboats on Columbia, 173;
+    disasters on River, 174-175;
+    succoured by Dr. McLoughlin, 176;
+    settlement in Willamette Valley, 176
+
+  Indians, sad history, 18;
+    myths, 19 _et seq._;
+    names, 31-32;
+    traders in furs, 103
+
+  Indians', the three Nez Perce, quest for the "Book of Life," 139
+
+  Indian War of 1855, beginning, 219;
+    battle at Walla Walla, 221;
+    unsatisfactory end, 224
+
+  Indian War of 1858, 225 _et seq._
+
+  Inland Empire, origin, 6;
+    general description, 14
+
+  _Intelligencer, National_, expressions in regard to Oregon, 187
+
+  Irving, Washington, author of _Astoria_, 113
+
+
+  J
+
+  _Jason P. Flint_, steamer on Columbia, 235
+
+  Jefferson, Thomas, connection with Pacific Coast, 69-70;
+    organisation of Lewis and Clark expedition, 72-73;
+    instructions to party, 74
+
+  _Jenny Clark_, steamer on Willamette, 236
+
+  Jetty, at mouth of River, construction, 395;
+    prospective results, 396
+
+  Joint Occupation Treaty, 134
+
+  Joseph, Indian chief, in Walla Walla council, 217-218
+
+  Joseph (Hallakallakeen), in great war of 1877, 229;
+    captured, 231;
+    later life and character, 232
+
+  Joseph War of 1877, 229 _et seq._
+
+
+  K
+
+  Kamiah monster, myth of, 19-21
+
+  Kamiakin, Yakima chief, 213;
+    at Walla Walla Council, 214;
+    conspiracy to kill Governor Stevens, 216;
+    description of by Stevens, 216;
+    breaking up of treaties, 218;
+    new force of warriors, 220;
+    apparent success, 224
+
+  Kamm, Jacob, engineer on steamer _Lot Whitcomb_, 235
+
+  Keith, J., at restoration of Astoria, 125
+
+  Kelley, Hall J., home and character, 159;
+    expedition to California and Oregon, 160;
+    return to New England, 161
+
+  Kelley, Col. J. K., in battle of the Walla Walla, 221
+
+  Kendrick, Capt. John, in command of the _Columbia Rediviva_, 60;
+    in fur-trade, 61
+
+  Kettle Falls, historic interest, 296
+
+  Kennewick, 227
+
+  Kicking Horse River (Wapta), origin of name, 277
+
+  Kilbourne, Ralph, builder of _Star of Oregon_, 166
+
+  Kimooenim River, or Snake River, first view by Lewis and Clark party, 81
+
+  Kip, Lieutenant, account of Walla Walla Council, 214-215
+
+  Klickitat Indians, legends, 28-30;
+    atrocities of, at Cascades, 221
+
+  Kobaiway, Indian chief, 35
+
+  Konapee, story of, 37-39
+
+  Kooskooskie River, discovered by the Lewis and Clark party, 79;
+    navigation on, by Lewis and Clark party, 81
+
+  Kootenai River, character of navigation, 280-281;
+    Bonnington Falls of, 294
+
+  Kootenai Lake, description of, 295-296;
+    sporting on, 296
+
+
+  L
+
+  La Camas, paper mill, 375
+
+  _Ladd, Carrie_, steamer on Willamette, 236
+
+  Lamazee, or Lamazu, brings news of destruction of _Tonquin_, 123
+
+  _Lark_, wreck of, 124
+
+  _Lausanne_, Methodist mission ship, 142
+
+  Lawyer, Indian chief favourable to whites, 214-216
+
+  Le Breton, G. W., part in founding Provisional Government, 192
+
+  Ledyard, John, connection with Jefferson, 70;
+    comprehension of fur-trade, 101
+
+  Lee, Rev. Daniel, missionary to Indians, 141;
+    mission at The Dalles, 142
+
+  Lee, Rev. Jason, missionary to Indians, 140;
+    locating mission at Chemawa, 142;
+    in the East for reinforcements, 142;
+    death, 143;
+    connection with Ewing Young, 144;
+    memorial to Congress, 144;
+    influence, 145;
+    lecture at Peoria, 163;
+    chairman of meeting of settlers, 189
+
+  Lewis and Clark expedition, its inception by Jefferson, 71;
+    summary by Captain Lewis, 87;
+    mention of, by Jefferson, 88
+
+  Lewis, Jo, part in Whitman massacre, 206
+
+  Lewis, Meriwether, selection by Jefferson for leader of party, 72;
+    description of crossing Divide, 75
+
+  Lewiston, founding of, 245
+
+  Linn Senator, presenting memorials to Congress, 189;
+    his death, 197
+
+  Lisa, Manuel, organises the Missouri Fur Company, 108
+
+  Looking Glass, famous speech, 215
+
+  _Lot Whitcomb_, the steamer, on Columbia River, 235
+
+  Louise, Lake, beauties of, 274
+
+  Louisiana Purchase, significance, 71
+
+
+  M
+
+  Macbeth, Miss Kate, opinion about Indians who looked for "Book of Life,"
+      136-137
+
+  Mackenzie, Alexander, expedition to Pacific Coast, 71;
+    journey to the Arctic Ocean, 106;
+    reaches Pacific Ocean, 106
+
+  McBean, Wm., account of Walla Walla Council, 217
+
+  McCellan, Robert, partner of Pacific Fur Company, 89
+
+  McClellan, Geo. B., assists Stevens in reconnaissance for Pacific
+      Railroad, 260
+
+  McDougall, Duncan, smallpox bottle, 122;
+    marries daughter of Comcomly, 122;
+    sells out Company, 124
+
+  McKay, Dr. W. C., physician at Pendleton, 319
+
+  McKenzie, Donald, partner of Pacific Fur Company, 89;
+    leads division of party, 92;
+    sells out Company, 124
+
+  McKinley, Allen, building of steamer on Columbia, 235
+
+  McLoughlin, Dr. John, as factor of Hudson's Bay Company, 130;
+    reception of Methodist missionaries, 141;
+    meets the Whitman party of missionaries, 150;
+    connection with building _Star of Oregon_, 166;
+    sees approaching success of Americans, 167;
+    stories connecting him with Americans, 168;
+    account of Provisional Government, 195;
+    becomes an American citizen, 196;
+    land troubles, 196;
+    sadness of old age, 196;
+    summary of character, 197
+
+  Maldonado, extravagant stories, 46;
+    map, 48
+
+  Maquinna, Indian chief, 202
+
+  Martinez, voyage on coast of Oregon, 55
+
+  _Mary_, steamer on Upper Columbia, 235;
+    rescues victims of Indian war, 236;
+    on her regular route, 237
+
+  Mazama Club, influence of, 353
+
+  Meares, Capt. John, English explorer, 44;
+    voyages to Oregon Coast, 58;
+    at mouth of Columbia, 59-60
+
+  Meek, Jo, part in founding Provisional Government, 192
+
+  Memaloose Island, 337
+
+  Miller, Joseph, partner of Pacific Fur Company, 89
+
+  Minto, John, account of founding of Provisional Government, 190
+
+  Montcachabe, Indian who first crossed the continent, 70
+
+  _Moody, Mary_, steamer, first steamer on Pend Oreille Lake, 245
+
+  Moody, Z. F., builds steamer, 245
+
+  Moorehouse, Major Lee, Indian photographer, 320
+
+  Morigeau, Baptiste, pioneer on Lake Windermere, 283
+
+  Moscow, site of University of Idaho, 315
+
+  Moses, Indian chief, 297
+
+  _Mountain Buck_, steamer on Columbia, 236
+
+  Mountaineers' Club, purpose and location, 353
+
+  Mowry, Wm., report of speech by Nez Perce Indian, 139
+
+  _Multnomah_, steamer on Columbia, 236
+
+  Multnomah Falls, 348
+
+
+  N
+
+  Nekahni, Mt., location of, 33;
+    beauty of, 39;
+    the "treasure ship," 40-41
+
+  Nelson, metropolis of the Kootenai, 294;
+    fruit industries of, 294;
+    mines of, 295;
+    transportation of, 295
+
+  Nesmith, J. W., extract on immigration of 1843, 169;
+    account of Indian guide, Sticcus, 172;
+    in Indian War of 1855, 221
+
+  Nez Perce Indians, origin of, 21;
+    first meeting with Lewis and Clark party, 80;
+    looking for "Book of Life," 137
+
+  Nootka Sound, discovery of, 51;
+    important centre, 55;
+    as a cause of dispute between England and Spain, 62
+
+  North Bank Railroad, 262;
+    cost of, 377;
+    bridge, 377
+
+  North-west Fur Company, organisation, 105;
+    unites with Hudson's Bay Company, 107, 128;
+    in possession of Columbia Basin, 125
+
+
+  O
+
+  Oak Point founded by Winship brothers, 110
+
+  Ogden, Peter Skeen, ransoms survivors of Whitman massacre, 207
+
+  _Okanogan_, the steamer, first to run Tumwater Falls, 242
+
+  Okanogan Indians, story of, 284-285
+
+  Oneonta Gorge, 347
+
+  Oregon, name of, 31
+
+  Oregon Question, its complicated and momentous character, 200
+
+  Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co. organised, 246
+
+  Oregon Short Line Railroad, 262
+
+  Oregon Steam Navigation Co. organised, 237;
+    development of business, 238;
+    its portages, 238;
+    sells out, 246
+
+  Oregon Transportation Co. organised, 237
+
+  _Oregonian_, newspaper, influence of, 386
+
+  Osborne, Mr., escape from Whitman massacre, 207
+
+
+  P
+
+  Pacific Fur Co., organisation of, 89;
+    its dissolution, 125
+
+  Paha Cliffs, 336
+
+  Pakenham, British envoy, and his course in regard to Oregon, 199-200
+
+  Pambrun, Pierre, instructed Indians in Catholic faith, 137
+
+  Parker, Rev. Samuel, in Oregon to investigate condition of Indians, 145;
+    his traits, 146;
+    book, 146
+
+  Pasco, lands around, 326;
+    prospects of, 327
+
+  _Patriot, Illinois_, report of the Indians looking for "Book of Life,"
+      137
+
+  _Peacock_, ship of Wilkes Expedition lost on Columbia Bar, 165
+
+  Pearce, E. D., connection with discovery of gold in Idaho, 252
+
+  Pearson, express rider, rides to notify Stevens of Great Yakima War,
+      219-220
+
+  Pendleton, its industries and some of its citizens, 319-320
+
+  Peoria party of immigrants, 163
+
+  Perez, voyage of, 51
+
+  Perkins, Rev. H. K. W., mission at The Dalles, 142
+
+  Peupeumoxmox, Indian chief in war of 1855, 213;
+    leads force to Walla Walla, 214;
+    killed, 221
+
+  Polk, President, management of Oregon Question, 199-200
+
+  Poppleton, Irene Lincoln, article in _Oregon Historical Quarterly_, 237
+
+  Portland developed by discovery of gold in California, 251;
+    location, 381;
+    transportation facilities, 382;
+    commerce, 382-383;
+    buildings, 384;
+    artistic character of, 385;
+    Historical Society, 385-386
+
+  _Potter, T. J._, steamer on Columbia, 248
+
+  Priest Rapids, character of, 322;
+    origin of name, 322;
+    power for pumping, 324
+
+  Provisional Government, origin of, 190-192;
+    organisation of, 193;
+    officers of, 194;
+    state house for, 194
+
+  Provost, J. B., at restoration of Astoria, 125;
+    agent of United States for receiving Astoria from Great Britain, 182;
+    describes Columbia Bar, 182-183
+
+  Pullman, site of State College, 315
+
+
+  R
+
+  _Raccoon_, British man-of-war at Astoria, 124
+
+  Railroad Creek, scenery about, 309-310
+
+  Rainier, Mt., origin of name, 32
+
+  Rector, Wm., road across Cascade Mountains, 176
+
+  Revelstoke, character as a junction, 292
+
+  Rock Island Rapids, 321
+
+  Roosevelt, Theodore, view of Calhoun's policy in regard to Oregon, 198;
+    reference to Columbia River, 246
+
+  Rooster Rock, appearance of, 349-350;
+    River below, 375
+
+  Rosalia, monument of Steptoe, 315
+
+  Ross, Alexander, adventure in Yakima country, 126-127;
+    narration of profits in fur-trade, 131;
+    on blowing up of _Tonquin_, 203
+
+  Ruckle and Olmstead put steamer on Columbia, 236
+
+  Russia, entrance upon American exploration, 50-51
+
+
+  S
+
+  Sacajawea, with Lewis and Clark party, 75;
+    sees the whale, 85;
+    finds her brother, Cameahwait, 78
+
+  St. Helens, Mt., origin of, in Indian myth, 22-24
+
+  St. Joe River, its beauties, 297
+
+  St. Peter's Dome, 346
+
+  Salmon River, Lewis and Clark party at the head of, 79
+
+  Saltese, Coeur d'Alene chief, 226
+
+  _San Jose_, ship connected with Indian story, 42
+
+  Scott, Harvey, character and influence as an editor, 386
+
+  Sea-otter, importance in the fur-trade, 100
+
+  _Senorita_, steamer on Columbia, 236
+
+  Shakspere, his location of Caliban and Ariel in the Far West, 47
+
+  Shaw, Col. B. F., battle of Grande Ronde, 222
+
+  Shepard, Rev. Cyrus, missionary to Indians, 141
+
+  Sheridan, battle at Cascades, 22
+
+  Shoshone Indians, meeting with Lewis and Clark party, 76-78
+
+  Shuswap Indians, story of, 284-285
+
+  _Sierra Nevada_, the steamship, its cargo of treasure, 239
+
+  Simpson, S. L., extract from poem of, 380
+
+  Smith, Rev. A. B., minister to Oregon Indians, 151;
+    at Kamiah, 152
+
+  Smith, J. C., connection with gold mines in Idaho, 253
+
+  Smith, Jedediah, American trapper thought to have taught religion to
+      Indians, 137
+
+  Smith, William, mate on _Albatross_, 109
+
+  Snake River, orchards of, 316;
+    heat, 317;
+    irrigation systems of, 317;
+    Shoshone Falls of, 317
+
+  Snow-peaks, general group of, 353;
+    zones of, 370-372
+
+  Snickster, adventure in Steptoe expedition, 228
+
+  Sowles, Capt. Cornelius, character of, 116
+
+  Spain, connection with Oregon exploration, 48;
+    downfall, 48-49;
+    settlement of California, 49;
+    favouring conditions for exploration, 50;
+    conflict with England over Nootka, 62;
+    character of claims to Oregon, 180
+
+  Spalding, Rev. H. H., in Oregon as missionary, 147;
+    his traits of character, 148;
+    among Nez Perces, 151;
+    first printing press west of Rocky Mountains, 152
+
+  Spalding, Mrs. H. H., characteristics, 148
+
+  Speelyei, Indian god, struggle with Wishpoosh, 8-9;
+    creates Indian tribes, 9
+
+  _Spencer Chas. D._, steamer on Columbia, 248
+
+  Spokane, remarkable character as a city, 315;
+    water power of Falls, 315;
+    grandeur as spectacle, 315;
+    railway system, 316
+
+  Spokane House, location of, 315
+
+  Spotted Eagle, remarkable speech, 223
+
+  _Star of Oregon_, schooner built on Willamette River, 166;
+    trip to San Francisco, 167
+
+  Stark, Benjamin, in steamboat business, 236
+
+  _Statesman, Washington_, extracts in regard to Idaho mines, 255-256
+
+  Stehekin River, canyon of, 303;
+    Rainbow Falls of, 305;
+    Horseshoe Basin of, 306
+
+  Steptoe, Col. E. J., dissension with Stevens, 223;
+    fort at Walla Walla, 224;
+    disastrous expedition to Spokane, 225 _et seq._
+
+  Stevens, Hazard, account of Walla Walla Council, 215
+
+  Stevens, I. I., appointed Governor of Washington, 213;
+    makes treatise, 213;
+    Council at Walla Walla, 214;
+    goes to northern country to make treaties, 215;
+    describes Kamiakin, 216;
+    makes treaty with Flatheads, 218;
+    returns to Olympia, 221;
+    organises volunteers, 222;
+    second Council at Walla Walla, 222;
+    trouble with Steptoe, 223;
+    trouble with Wool, 224;
+    battle at Walla Walla, 224;
+    reconnaissance for railroad in 1853, 260
+
+  Sticcus, Indian guide of immigrants, 172;
+    tries to save the Whitman Mission, 206
+
+  Stuart, David, founding of Fort Okanogan, 121
+
+  Stump, Capt. T. J., on first steamer down Tumwater Falls, 242
+
+  Sturgis, profits of fur-trade, 103
+
+  Sutter, Captain, connection with discovery of gold, 250
+
+  Swan, data on income of furs, 103
+
+  Swift, Jonathan, placing of Gulliver near the coast of Oregon, 47
+
+
+  T
+
+  "Takhoma, Mt.," origin of name, 32
+
+  Tallapus, Indian deity, 33
+
+  Tamahas, part in Whitman massacre, 206, 212
+
+  Tamsaky, in Whitman massacre, 206;
+    killed, 212
+
+  Taylor, Captain, part in battle of Pine Creek, 226
+
+  Telaukait, part in Whitman massacre, 206
+
+  _Tenino_, the steamer, value of its business, 239
+
+  Tetons, Three, first seen by Hunt party, 81
+
+  Thompson, David, crossing the continent, 106;
+    at Astoria, 121;
+    remains of his fort on Lake Windermere, 282
+
+  Thompson, R. R., builds steamer _Colonel Wright_, 235
+
+  Thorn, Jonathan, disposition as captain of _Tonquin_, 116;
+    tyrannical course in entering Columbia River, 117-118
+
+  Thornton, J. Quinn, description of Oregon State House, 194
+
+  Timothy, Nez Perce Indian guide to Steptoe's command, save command,
+      226-227
+
+  _Tonquin_, fitting out for Astoria, 117;
+    entrance of Columbia River, 118-119;
+    destroyed by Indians, 124;
+    account of capture, 203
+
+  Touchet Valley, adaptability to orchards, 325
+
+  Trappers, two general classes of, 90
+
+  Treaty with England in regard to Oregon, 200
+
+  Trevett, Vic, tomb of, 337
+
+  Troup, Capt. James, skill in running rapids, 242;
+    on _D. S. Baker_ over The Dalles, 243
+
+
+  U
+
+  Umatilla Plains first seen by the Hunt expedition, 94
+
+  Umatilla Rapids, singular character of, 328
+
+  Union Transportation Co. organised, 237
+
+  United States, character of claims to Oregon, 181;
+    notifies Great Britain to regain Astoria, 182
+
+
+  V
+
+  Valdez, circumnavigation of Vancouver Island, 55
+
+  Vancouver, Capt. George, as English commissioner, 62;
+    equipment for exploration, 62;
+    at mouth of Columbia River, 63;
+    meets Gray, 63;
+    at Columbia Bar, 66
+
+  Vancouver Island, location of important explorations, 56-57
+
+  Vancouver, Fort, its condition as a Hudson's Bay post, 128-129
+
+  Vancouver, city of historic interest, 376;
+    scenery, 377
+
+  _Venture_, the steamer, carried over Cascades, 236
+
+  Verendrye, first European to enter Rocky Mountains, 70
+
+  Villard, Henry, first arrival in Oregon, 260;
+    railroad on Columbia River, 261;
+    financial disasters, 261
+
+  Vizcaino, commander of Spanish fleet of exploration, 44
+
+  Von Holst, opinion in regard to Calhoun's management of the Oregon
+      matter, 198
+
+
+  W
+
+  Walker, Rev. Elkanah, missionary to Oregon Indians, 151;
+    at Tshimakain, 151
+
+  Walker's Prairie, location of first church, 315
+
+  Walker, Wm., account of Indians who sought the "Book of Life," 137
+
+  Walla Walla, Fort, arrival at, by immigrants of 1843, 173
+
+  Walla Walla City, historic nature of, 318;
+    appearance and surroundings, 318;
+    Whitman Mission, 318
+
+  Walla Walla Council of Stevens with Indians, 213 _et seq._
+
+  Wallowa Lake, beauty and historic interest of, 320
+
+  Wallula, 328
+
+  Wapatoo Island, first seen by Lewis and Clark party, 86;
+    description of, 378
+
+  Wapta River, 277
+
+  _Wasco_, steamer built on Columbia, 235;
+    rescues victims of Indian War, 236;
+    under new management, 237
+
+  Washington, State, evidences of development, 314 _et seq._;
+    views of, from Mt. Adams, 366 _et seq._
+
+  Washington Territory, created by Congress, 212;
+    volunteers for Indian War, 222
+
+  Washougal, historic interest of, 375
+
+  Webster, Daniel, attitude on Oregon question, 186-187;
+    inclined to yield to England, 197
+
+  Wehatpolitan, story of, 345
+
+  Wenatchee, interest as an irrigated region, 314
+
+  Whitcomb, Lot, builds steamer of same name, 235
+
+  White, Dr. Elijah, in Oregon in 1837 as Indian agent, 142
+
+  White, Capt. Lew, commands steamer _Colonel Wright_ on trip up Columbia,
+      243-244;
+    launches steamer _Forty-nine_ on Columbia, 245
+
+  Whitman, Dr. Marcus, entrance upon work for Oregon Indians, 145;
+    popularity with trappers, 146;
+    return to New York, 146;
+    marriage and return to Oregon, 147;
+    his appearance and character, 147;
+    getting waggon across continent, 150;
+    among Cayuses, 151;
+    conception of value of Oregon, 153;
+    journey in midwinter to St. Louis, 154;
+    helps organise immigration of 1843, 168;
+    guides immigrants, 171;
+    doctors Indians for measles, 205;
+    assassinated, 206;
+    connection with Dr. McLoughlin, 196
+
+  Whitman, Mrs. Narcissa, appearance and qualities, 147;
+    her death, 207
+
+  Whitman massacre, 206-208
+
+  Whitman College, 319
+
+  Whitman County, agricultural resources of, 316
+
+  White Salmon River and Valley, 338
+
+  Wilkes, Lieut. Chas., commands expedition to Columbia River, 165;
+    establishes idea of unity of Pacific Coast, 165;
+    assists in equipping schooner _Star of Oregon_, 160;
+    advice to settlers about a government, 190
+
+  Willamette River, scenery around mouth, 378;
+    tributaries and Valley, 380;
+    apostrophe to, by S. L. Simpson, 380
+
+  Willamette Valley, general view, 15
+
+  Willamette University grows out of mission to Indians, 143
+
+  Williams in the Steptoe retreat, 228
+
+  Windermere Lake, 280
+
+  Winship brothers, project for trading company on Columbia River, 109-113
+
+  Wishpoosh, the Beaver, Indian legend, 8
+
+  Wool, Gen. J. E., discord with Stevens, 222, 224
+
+  Wright, Colonel, campaign against Spokane Indians, 225, 229
+
+  Wyeth, Nathaniel, takes Methodist missionary party across continent in
+      1834, 141;
+    commendation by Lowell, 162;
+    plans great enterprise on Columbia, 162;
+    builds fort at mouth of Willamette, 163;
+    attracts attention to Oregon, 163
+
+
+  Y
+
+  Yakima Valley, productive capacity of, 325
+
+  Yaktana, Indian chief in adventure with Ross, 127
+
+  Young, Ewing, in California, 160;
+    drives cattle to Oregon, 161;
+    death of, 189
+
+
+  Z
+
+  Zaltieri, map of America, 47
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: COLUMBIA RIVER ENTRANCE]
+
+[Illustration: THE COLUMBIA RIVER And Surrounding Country]
+
+
+
+
+_American Waterways_
+
+
+The Romance of the Colorado River
+
+The Story of its Discovery in 1540, with an account of the Later
+Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through
+the Line of the Great Canyons.
+
+By Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
+
+Member of the United States Colorado River Expedition of 1871 and 1872
+
+_435 pages, with 200 Illustrations, and Frontispiece in Color. $3.50 net_
+
+"His scientific training, his long experience in this region, and his eye
+for natural scenery enable him to make this account of the Colorado River
+most graphic and interesting. No other book equally good can be written
+for many years to come--not until our knowledge of the river is greatly
+enlarged."--_The Boston Herald._
+
+"Mr. Dellenbaugh writes with enthusiasm and balance about his chief, and
+of the canyon with a fascination that make him disinclined to leave it,
+and brings him thirty years later to its description with undiminished
+interest."--_New York Tribune._
+
+
+The Ohio River
+
+A COURSE OF EMPIRE
+
+By Archer B. Hulbert
+
+Associate Professor of American History, Marietta College, Author of
+"Historic Highways of America," etc.
+
+_390 pages, with 100 Illustrations and a Map. $3.50 net_
+
+An interesting description from a fresh point of view of the international
+struggle which ended with the English conquest of the Ohio Basin, and
+includes many interesting details of the pioneer movement on the Ohio. The
+most widely read students of the Ohio Valley will find a unique and
+unexpected interest in Mr. Hulbert's chapters dealing with the Ohio River
+in the Revolution, the rise of the cities of Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and
+Louisville, the fighting Virginians, the old-time methods of navigation,
+etc.
+
+"A wonderfully comprehensive and entirely fascinating book."--_Chicago
+Inter-Ocean._
+
+
+Narragansett Bay
+
+_Its Historic and Romantic Associations and Picturesque Setting_
+
+By Edgar Mayhew Bacon
+
+Author of "The Hudson River," "Chronicles of Tarrytown," etc.
+
+_340 pages, with 50 Drawings by the Author, and with Numerous Photographs
+and a Map. $3.50 net_
+
+Impressed by the important and singular part played by the settlers of
+Narragansett in the development of American ideas and ideals, and strongly
+attracted by the romantic tales that are inwoven with the warp of history,
+as well as by the incomparable setting the great bay affords for such a
+subject, the author offers this result of his labor as a contribution to
+the story of great American Waterways, with the hope that his readers may
+be imbued with somewhat of his own enthusiasm.
+
+"An attractive description of the picturesque part of Rhode Island. Mr.
+Bacon dwells on the natural beauties, the legendary and historical
+associations, rather than the present appearance of the shores."--_N. Y.
+Sun._
+
+
+The Great Lakes
+
+_Vessels That Plough Them, Their Owners, Their Sailors, and Their Cargoes;
+together with A Brief History of Our Inland Seas_
+
+By James Oliver Curwood
+
+_With about 80 Full-page Illustrations, $3.50 net_
+
+This profusely illustrated book, as entertaining as it is informing, has
+the twofold advantage of being written by a man who knows the Lakes and
+their shores as well as what has been written about them. The general
+reader will enjoy the romance attaching to the past history of the Lakes
+and not less the romance of the present--the story of the great commercial
+fleets that plough our inland seas, created to transport the fruits of the
+earth and the metals that are dug from the bowels of the earth. To the
+business man who has interests in or about the Lakes, or to the
+prospective investor in Great Lakes enterprises, the book will be found
+suggestive. Comparatively little has been written of these fresh-water
+seas, and many of his readers will be amazed at the wonderful story which
+this volume tells.
+
+
+The St. Lawrence River
+
+_Historical--Legendary--Picturesque_
+
+By George Waldo Browne
+
+Author of "Japan--the Place and the People," "Paradise of the Pacific,"
+etc.
+
+_385 pages, with 100 Illustrations and a Map. $3.50 net_
+
+While the St. Lawrence River has been the scene of many important events
+connected with the discovery and development of a large portion of North
+America, no attempt has heretofore been made to collect and embody in one
+volume a complete and comprehensive narrative of this great waterway. This
+is not denying that considerable has been written relating to it, but the
+various offerings have been scattered through many volumes, and most of
+these have become inaccessible to the general reader.
+
+This work presents in a consecutive narrative the most important historic
+incidents connected with the river, combined with descriptions of some of
+its most picturesque scenery and delightful excursions into to its
+legendary lore. In selecting the hundred illustrations care has been taken
+to give as wide a scope as possible to the views belonging to the river.
+
+
+The Niagara River
+
+By Archer Butler Hulbert
+
+Professor of American History, Marietta College; author of "The Ohio
+River," "Historic Highways of America," etc.
+
+_350 pages, with 70 Illustrations and Maps. $3,50 net_
+
+Professor Hulbert tells all that is best worth recording of the history of
+the river which gives the book its title, and of its commercial present
+and its great commercial future. An immense amount of carefully ordered
+information is here brought together into a most entertaining and
+informing book. No mention of this volume can be quite adequate that fails
+to take into account the extraordinary chapter which is given to
+chronicling the mad achievements of that company of dare-devil bipeds of
+both sexes who for decades have been sweeping over the Falls in barrels
+and other receptacles, or who have gone dancing their dizzy way on ropes
+or wires stretched from shore to shore above the boiling, leaping water
+beneath.
+
+
+The Hudson River
+
+FROM OCEAN TO SOURCE
+
+_Historical--Legendary--Picturesque_
+
+By Edgar Mayhew Bacon
+
+Author of "Chronicles of Tarrytown," "Narragansett Bay," etc.
+
+_600 Pages, with 100 Illustrations, including a Sectional Map of the
+Hudson River. $3.50 net_
+
+"The value of this handsome quarto does not depend solely on the
+attractiveness with which Mr. Bacon has invested the whole subject, it is
+a kind of footnote to the more conventional histories, because it throws
+light upon the life and habits of the earliest settlers. It is a study of
+Dutch civilization in the New World, severe enough in intentions to be
+accurate, but easy enough in temper to make a great deal of humor, and to
+comment upon those characteristic customs and habits which, while they
+escape the attention of the formal historian, are full of
+significance."--_Outlook._
+
+
+The Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut
+
+THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES FROM MOUNTAIN TO SEA
+
+_Historical and Descriptive_
+
+By Edwin Munroe Bacon
+
+Author of "Walks and Rides in the Country Round About Boston," etc.
+
+_500 Pages, with 100 Illustrations and a Map. $3.50 net_
+
+From ocean to source every mile of the Connecticut is crowded with
+reminders of the early explorers, of the Indian wars, of the struggle of
+the Colonies, and of the quaint, peaceful village existence of the early
+days of the Republic. Beginning with the Dutch discovery, Mr. Bacon traces
+the interesting movements and events which are associated with this chief
+river of New England.
+
+
+The Columbia River
+
+_Its History--Its Myths--Its Scenery--Its Commerce_
+
+By William Denison Lyman
+
+Professor of History in Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington
+
+_Fully Illustrated_
+
+This is the first effort to present a book distinctively on the Columbia
+River. It is the intention of the author to give some special prominence
+to Nelson and the magnificent lake district by which it is surrounded. As
+the joint possession of the United States and British Columbia, and as the
+grandest scenic river of the continent, the Columbia is worthy of special
+attention.
+
+
+_In Preparation:_
+
+_Each will be fully illustrated and will probably be published at $3.50
+net_
+
+  1.--Inland Waterways
+      By Herbert Quick
+
+  2.--The Mississippi River
+      By Julius Chambers
+
+  3.--The Story of the Chesapeake
+      By Ruthella Mory Bibbins
+
+  4.--Lake George and Lake Champlain
+      By W. Max Reid
+        Author of "The Mohawk Valley,"
+        "The Story of Old Fort Johnson," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Columbia River, by William Denison Lyman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLUMBIA RIVER ***
+
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