516 BOTANICAL. INFORMATION. 



place ourselves again on the Koos-Kooskee, to ascend the 

 westerly cote, in order to examine the 



III. — Sub-region of the level parts of Upper Oregon, and 

 the high cold plains to the extreme left; elevation about 

 4,000 feet. 



The Saptona, or Nez Percez, Indians, to whom this terri- 

 tory belongs, annually resort to these plains, not only to dig 

 their Gamass and farinaceous roots, known by the name 

 of " Nez Percez bread-root," but to graze their immense 

 herds of horses and cattle. The country has several 

 climates, along the Koos-Kooskee and Lewis river it is 

 decidedly temperate ; the grass remaining green during 

 winter, and little or no snow lying on the ground. Above, on 

 the highlands, however, frost is felt even in the midst of sum- 

 mer; and during the days (end of June, 1844) which I spent 

 there, we had 2° to 4° Reaum. below freezing point, every 

 night. Nevertheless, vegetation is luxuriant, even the tender 

 flowers of Cypripedium stand the frosts well, and the pasture 

 is excellent, as the thriving herds belonging to the Indians 

 sufficiently prove. 



These tesselated plains are separated by low, snowy, p™ e - 

 clad mountain ridges, appearing to be spurs of the i* lue 

 Mountains, which finally, according to my informant, form a 

 dividing ridge between the desert plains and the tributaries 

 emptying directly into the Columbia, and those of Lewis 

 river. The latter streams traverse the high plains, nearly 

 parallel with the ridges, and are immersed in defiles, their 

 almost perpendicular cdtes being walled by rudely-torn, 

 pseudo-columnar basalt, and remaining filled with ice for the 

 whole summer months. Following these streams, the ban M 



4-1. 



become steeper, and the basalt more regular, till, at the mou 

 of Salmon river,* it assumes the regular columnar it> ri 

 throughout. 



* Here, but a few miles from the mouth of Salmon river, the N'P " 

 Indians strike their summer camp, for the purposes of digging * 



