{ERMATINGER] YORK FACTORY EXPRESS JOURNAL 71 
22nd.—Rain most of the day. Clear the Cascades Portage! by 
4 past 11 o’elock. Sail and paddle the rest of the day. Encamp a little 
below Cape Horn’ at 6 p.m. 
23rd.—Rainy weather. Start at 5 a.m. Breakfast below the 
Dalles. Encamp above the little Dalles* (discharged part of our 
baggage) at 6 p.m. Saw the corpse of a woman on this Portage, lying 
in a hole, close to the track, which had been made for some other 
purpose, entirely naked, left a prey to the crows—so little are these 
savages actuated by decency. 
24th.—Fine weather. Start at 5 a.m. Pass our Baggage and Boat 
and clear the Chiites® portage by 11 a.m. The other Boat and crew 
return to the Fort. Hoist sail with a stiff breeze. Doctor McLoughlin 
and Mr. McLeod remain behind to hire horses to carry them to Walla 
Walla. Encamp 3 miles above J. Day’s River’ at 5 p.m. having waited 
for the Doctor and Mr. McLeod who were unable to procure horses. 
They left Ouvré with Indians who had sent for horses which he was to 
bring up. He arrives after dark with 5 accompanied by 2 Indians. 

1 Now surmounted by a canal with locks; about 50 miles above Ft. Vancouver; 
total descent at high water, 45 feet; at low water, 36 feet; total length of rapids 44 
miles. During the season of navigation, steamboats ply between Portland and the 
Dalles. On the completion of the Dalles locks, this will be extended upward to 
all ports on the lower river. 
® Upper’ Cape Horn; on south bank of the Columbia, 72 miles above Van- 
couver and opposite mouth of Klickitat river. 
8 “Tjalles’”’—Fr. for “ flagstones’’—refers to the characteristic, columnar, basalt 
_rocks through which the Columbia flows at this point. This stretch is about fourteen 
miles long and, at the foot, are the Dalles rapids, 13 miles long and descent of about 
15 feet; about 10 miles above the Dalles are the Little Dalles half mile long and, at 
the head, are the Celilo falls, descending 47 feet at low water. The total descent at 
low water is 814 feet, at high water 623 feet. 
4“Tittle Dalles” ; the middle portion of the rapids; about 90 miles above Ft. 
Vancouver. 
5 Celilo falls, three miles above Little Dalles. The Columbia is navigable from 
Celilo, at the upper end of the Dalles, to the foot of Priest rapid. 
6 “Walla Walla,’”’ a Hudson’s Bay Co. post, known also as Fort Nez Perces; on 
the Columbia, at the mouth of Wallawalla river and 30 miles due west of the present 
city of Walla Walla, state of Washington; present Wallula Junction and post office 
are about one mile from site of H. B. fort. This fort was the headquarters of the 
Snake River district, embracing forts Walla Walla, Hall and Boisé. In 1847, it 
was “a small fort, built of dobies or blocks of mud baked in the sun, which is here 
intensely hot’’ (Kane, Wanderings in North America, 271). 
7“ John Day river’; so named after the member of the Astor overland party 
here robbed by Indians. (See Washington Irving’s Astoria.) 
