554 WASHINGTON IRVINc's ASTORIA . 



the 16th of September at the head-waters of one of the western 

 streams the Colorado, on whose banks a plenty was enjoyed that 

 recompensed them for their previous troubles and privations. Little 

 did they then dream of the hardships and perils yet to be encountered 

 by them in the frightful wilderness between them and the Pacific. 

 The travellers on the 24th reached one of the southern head-waters 

 of the Columbia, the Mad river, whose rugged track, however, they 

 left for a shorter and easier passage across the mountains. On their 

 arrival at Fort Henry, a deserted log hut, four of the party went off on 

 a trapping expedition, and the rest prepared canoes to descend by 

 water to the main stream of the Columbia.* On the 18th of October 

 fifteen boats, paddled by the voyageurs, descended into the Snake 

 river, a stream whose headlong and broken course proved the cause 

 of many disasters. Obliged to desert their canoes after a voyage of 

 more than three hundred miles from Fort Henry, and pursuing their 

 forlorn journey over an unknown and rugged tract, they saw the need 

 of lessening their baggage, and accordingly they set to work to pre- 

 pare caches in which to deposit their superfluous property. Mr. Ir- 

 ving's description will explain much better than our own briefer 

 definition. 



" A cache is a term common among traders and hunters to'designate a hiding- 

 place for provisions and effects ; and it requires the utmost skill to render these 

 places of concealment invisible to the lynx eye of an Indian. 



" The first care is to seek out a proper situation, which is generally some 

 dry, low bank of clay, on the margin of a water-course. As soon as the pre- 

 cise spot is pitched upon, blankets, saddle-cloths, and other coverings, are 

 spread over the surrounding grass and bushes, to prevent foot tracks, or any 

 other derangement ; and as few hands as possible are employed. A circle of 

 about two feet in diameter is then nicely cut in the sod, which is carefully re- 

 moved, with the loose soil immediately beneath it, and laid aside in a place 

 where it will be safe from anything that may change its appearance. The un- 

 covered area is then digged perpendicularly to the depth of about three feet, 

 and is then gradually widened so as to form a conical chamber six or seven 

 feet deep. The whole of the earth displaced by this process, being of a dif- 

 ferent colour from that on the surface, is handed up in a vessel, and heaped 



* The territory of Oregon (denned by a treaty with Spain in 1821) stretches across 

 the Pacific nearly 900 miles," and comprises an area of about 440,000 square miles. 

 This extensive region is drained by the numerous affluents of one great river the Co- 

 lumbia. Its extreme northern source is laid down in 54 degrees north, and 117 degrees 

 2 minutes west. After flowing southward for 400 miles it unites with Clarke's river. 

 The main stream then assumes a S.W. course for 200 miles, and then receives Louis 

 river. In latitude 46 degrees north the river turns westward, in which direction it flows 

 for 300 miles, till it reaches the Pacific. Louis river, which, rising in north latitude 

 40 degrees and west longitude 107 degrees, runs north-west for about 650 miles, and 

 then westwaid into the main stream, is the largest affluent, and is upwards of 800 miles 

 long. "The remote region of Oregon," says Mr. Darby, in his View of the United 

 States, " appears at present as if on another planet. A line drawn across the United 

 States from Cape Hatteras to the mouth of the Columbia would measure 2700 miles, 

 ud the middle point of such a line would be found in the valley of the Missouri, 200 

 miles from Council Bluffs. St. Louis, on the Mississippi, is not one-third of the dis- 

 tance from Cape Hatteras to the mouth of the Columbia ; and if the whole surface were 

 inhabited and politically organized, the capital, if central, would stand upwards of 600 

 miles N.W. of St. Louis. When such a route is opened and becomes generally practi- 

 cable, it will in its interminable range and ramifications realize in America a picture 

 similar to the vast inland commercial roads and channels of Asia.'* 



