90 NARRATIVE AND ITINERARY REJOIN MAIN PARTY. 



be 967 feet in one place, and 1,811 feet in the other. As my train had already started for the 

 depot camp, I settled all accounts, and made every preparation for following it on the next 

 morning. Dr. Sterling here left the party. 



September 19. — Starting alone this morning to overtake the train, I travelled over the same 

 road as in coming, as far as Fifteen Mile creek, and then followed a pack trail up a long and 

 gently sloping ravine. In about 10 miles it conducted to the wagon road again, 3 miles from 

 Tysch mountains. By a little side cutting, a road could be made in this ravine, shorter and 

 better than the one at present used. I overtook my party at Tysch creek, and encamped there. 

 We slept, as usual, without tents, and a shower in the middle of the night gave us an unpleasant 

 surprise. It was but a poor consolation to reflect that they might now be expected at any time, 

 as the rainy season had commenced. 



September 20. — This morning a half-breed informed me that there was a good pass to the 

 Willamette valley, through a slight visible depression in the mountains near Mount Hood. 

 This information had an important effect upon our future movements. To-day we continued 

 our journey back over the trail by which we had come, and encamped at Nee-nee springs. 



September 21. — At Warn Chuck river I examined a warm spring larger than any I had seen 

 before. The great flat rock through which it rose, seemed unstable, for stepping on it caused 

 the water to bubble up more freely. The spring seemed to flow from a number of small holes 

 in a place 15 or 20 feet in diameter, and its temperature was 145° Fahrenheit. It was on the 

 northern bank of the river, about a quarter of a mile above the point where the trail crossed. 

 Access to it was rather difficult, on account of the narrow character of the canon, but it well 

 repaid the trouble of a visit. We encamped on Chit-tike creek. 



September 22. — To day we encamped, at the same place as before, in the Mpto-ly-as river 

 canon. Here we met a party of Indians, with their squaws and children, travelling north. 

 They caught several salmon in the river ; one of which, weighing about twenty-five pounds, 

 we bought. They spear the fish with barbed iron points, fitted loosely by sockets to the end 

 of poles about eight feet long. When the point pierces the fish, it separates from the end of 

 the pole, but remains strongly secured to it by a thong about twelve feet in length. This 

 prevents the salmon from breaking the pole in his struggles. A member of our party shot 

 with a pistol and secured one of these fish, of which there were many in the river. Our 

 animals suffered from want of grass to-night. 



September 23. — To day we followed the old trail to the "black butte," where we found a 

 paper on one of the trees, stating that the main party was in camp on Why-chus creek, about 

 seven miles towards the south. We struck through the woods, and soon saw the white tents 

 in an open prairie covered with grass and bordered by fine timber. Near it, the brook 

 Que-y-ee, after spreading out into a meadow, disappeared. This little opening, amid forest-clad 

 mountains and grand snow peaks, furnished a camping place, the wild beauty of which I have 

 seldom seen equalled. This was enhanced, in the evening, by a magnificent lunar rainbow, 

 and a beautifully tinted halo round the moon ; both of which appeared at the same time in 

 different quarters of the heavens. It is a singular coincidence that Col. Fremont, the only 

 explorer who ever preceded us in this region, saw the same rare phenomenon of a lunar rain- 

 bow, within about twenty miles of this spot, in 1843. 



