300 VOYAGE IN A CANOE FROM FORT OWEN TO VANCOUVER. 



Puget sound. Herbert gives an account, taken from Richardson s Fauna Boreali Americana, of 

 six different kinds of salmon known in the Oregon waters. The European fish are said to return 

 to the sea after spawning; there they remain a year or two, until they become sufficiently restored, 

 before they reascend the rivers to spawn again. The Columbia river salmon weigh from six to 

 forty pounds ; they are in excellent condition until they reach Wallah-Wallah, after which they 

 are much poorer, both in flesh and flavor. The Indians along the river collect, during the 

 summer and fail, these fish, which they want for winter use ; these are split open and the bones 

 taken out, leaving the skin with a layer of meat upon it, which when dry is about a third of an 

 inch thick. These are scarified in various directions, and then hung for a short time in the smoke 

 of a fire. They are then hung on poles or the branches of trees, where they are freely exposed 

 to the wind. In a month they become perfectly dry, and are then housed in small store-houses, 

 built much in the shape of the hay barracks of the eastern States, the floor upon which they are 

 laid being, for security against dogs and wolves, raised about eight or ten feet above the ground 

 boards ; bark and matting are placed over them to secure them from rain, also from the depreda 

 tions of the small fish crow (Corvus ossifragus.) Salmon thus dried forms the principal food of 

 the natives during the winter. There is no venison, and scarcely any other game, in the vicinity 

 of Fort Colville. The fur trade with the inhabitants in its immediate neighborhood amounts to 

 but little. Almost all of the trade of this kind carried on by this trading-post is through the 

 smaller forts it supplies in the Flathead and Kootenaie country, or among the tribes farther up 

 the main Columbia. An Indian gave me a list of the various tribes and bands of Indians in the 

 neighborhood of Fort Colville, and west of the Rocky mountains, who speak dialects and varia 

 tions of the same language. These dialects are still so similar as to be easily understood by any 

 of the Indians composing the bands. 



Selish, (Flatheads,) T-com-oe-loops. 



Spokane, (Spokanes,) Ne-com-ap-oe-lox. 



Kalispelm, (Pend d Oreilles,) Sar-lit-hu, near Okinakane. 



Squeer-yer-pe, (Colville Indians,) Squaw- a-tosh. 



Sin-poil-er-hu, (Sinpoils,) Sklarkum. 



Wagon and railroad routes run through the Bitter Root and Coeur d Alene mountains. The 

 result of my observations, together with the information I obtained from the Rev. Fathers 

 Hoecken and Joset, and from others, is as follows : 



The valley of the St. Mary s river, from the junction of the Hell Gate and Bitter Root rivers 

 to the Horse Plain, at the mouth of the Flalhead or Pend d Oreille river, will admit of a railroad 

 line of easy grade ; but the numerous very short curves obliging frequent crossings by strong 

 bridges, the great length of the route if the river is followed, the steep banks and the high- 

 raised work necessary to prevent the encroachments of the freshets, (which in many places 

 rise from twenty to thirty feet above the common level,) will all render this part of the road 

 exceedingly expensive. On the other hand, the character of the rocks is such that, where side 

 and deep cuts are required, quarrying and blasting can be readily done. From the Horse Plain 

 to the Cabinet there is a good, easy, natural grade on the right bank, with fewer curves and 

 greater width of valley than above. There are, of course, a few obstacles, one of which is the 

 &quot;Fallen Mountain;&quot; but the general aspect of this part of the route is good. At the Cabinet (a 

 point about twenty miles above Lake Pend d Oreille) the river is compressed between walls of 

 solid rock about one hundred feet high. Its width here could readily be spanned by a single 

 arch, and the road be made to take the left bank of the river. After reaching Lake Kalispelm, 

 it could readily skirt the eastern and southern shore until it reached a southern prolongation of 

 the lake, which extends about twenty-five miles in the direction of the Cceur d Alene mission, and 

 from that fact is called the C&amp;lt;jeur d Alene bay. From the upper end of this bay to the Coeur 

 d Alene lake there is a very gentle rise and a low divide, so low that it might readily be passed 

 over by a traveller without notice. From the Cosur d Alene lake to the valley of the Spokane 



