70 FISH HAEVESTING. 



and ox-teams. The road lies over a steep ridge 

 of hills to the junction of the Des Chutes, or ' Fall 

 river,' with the Columbia. Fishing at the Dalles 

 is much the same as at the Cascades. 



Great numbers of salmon turn off and ascend 

 the Snake river, to be captured at the Great Sho- 

 shonee Falls by the Snake and Bannock Indians. 

 We follow on the vanguard of the swimming 

 army, passing numberless tributaries, up which 

 detachments make their way, right and left, into 

 the heart of the country supplies for tribes living 

 near the different streams to the great falls of 

 the Columbia, the ' Kettle Falls ;'* why so named 

 is not very clear. These falls, except when the 

 river is at its highest flood, form an impassable 

 barrier to the salmon's progress ; the distance from 

 the sea is about 700 miles, and the first arrivals 

 are usually about the middle of June. 



The winter-quarters of the Boundary Com- 

 mission were about two miles above the falls, 

 and close to the falls is a trading-post of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Colville. The 

 gravelly plateau on which the trading-post stands, 

 together with one or two houses belonging to old 

 employes, was clearly once a lake-bottom. The 

 water at some remote period filling the lake ap- 



* Vide Illustration. 



