ITINERARY OP ROUTE FROM HELL GATE TO CCEUR D ALENE MISSION. 367 



and let it fall, fortunately without injury to any one. The Indians have quite a village of lodges 

 near the mission, and among them half a dozen log huts. 



October 13. The Coeur d Alenes have already, under .the influence and example of their 

 priest, made a fair commencement in agriculture, and will, with timely encouragement from 

 our government, live entirely by cultivation, for which their country is so well adapted. They 

 are well contented, and it is pleasing to observe habits of industry growing upon them. In the 

 barn we saw their operation of threshing. Four boys rode as many mules abreast around 

 in circle, and they were followed by two girls with flails, who were perfectly at home in the 

 business. I observed an Indian woman milking, and was surprised to see her use both hands, 

 something rarely seen among the Indians. We afterwards visited the field. A large fire was 

 burning, and around it sat Indians roasting potatoes at pleasure. There appeared to be great 

 scarcity of proper implements; and in digging potatoes I noticed that many had nothing better 

 than sharpened sticks. 



October 14. Determined to remain here until to-morrow. A Nez Perce, Frank, who with 

 two men arrived yesterday from Wallah-Wallah in three days, and who stopped to exchange 

 horses for flour, says thirty wagons have crossed the military road from Wallah-Wallah to 

 Ni squally. The Cceur d Alenes, Pend d Oreilles, Spokanes, and Nez Perces, meet together to 

 fish and hunt. They have an ingenious way of hunting the deer, which is worth relating. A 

 large circle is enclosed, and upon the trees around its circumference are attached pieces of cloth. 

 Then the hunters enter the area and start up the deer. The deer are afraid to pass the cloth, 

 and thus kept within the circle, are easily killed. Last year the Pend d Oreilles, in one hunt, 

 killed eight hundred; the Coeur d Alenes more than four hundred. It is said that the Coeur 

 d Alenes of St. Joseph river have finer lands and larger prairies than those of this mission. 



The distance from here to Wallah-Wallah is six days, to Colville four days, and four days 

 to the Pend d Oreille mission. 



On the return of the Indians from the field, Governor Stevens addressed them in kind and 

 encouraging terms. 



October 15. We started at eight o clock, after having given brother Charles as many lariet 

 ropes for raising the timbers of the church as we could spare. We marched through an exten 

 sive prairie bottom four miles in length ; leaving the river to the left, we took a course north 

 of west through a wooded, broken country, somewhat obstructed by fallen timber. We camped 

 on a beautiful prairie, with good grass, and here we found nearly one hundred Spokanes, with 

 some three hundred horses, on their way to the hunt. We had already met some forty Indians, 

 Cceur d Alenes, Nez Perces, and Spokanes, on the road. In the evening the Spokanes held 

 religious (Protestant) services, and we joined them to witness their ceremonies. The majority 

 of the Indians were on their way to meet the Flatheads and other tribes to hunt buffalo on 

 the waters of the Missouri. This is a very strong evidence that the snows will present no 

 insurmountable barrier to communication across the mountains in winter. Many of them make 

 a distance of six hundred miles in midwinter, recrossing the mountains in January, their horses 

 laden with robes and meat, to their homes on the waters of the Columbia. Distance nineteen 

 miles. 



October 16. We started at eight o clock. The road for the first half of the way through an 

 open, wooded prairie. Then we came into the Cceur d Alene prairie, a beautiful tract of land 

 containing about six hundred square miles. Trap-rock, projecting above the surface of the 

 ground in spurs, is plentiful as we enter this prairie. We met on the way a half-breed, named 

 Francis Farlay, on his way to St. Mary s with his family. He lives near Colville, just beyond 

 the ferry. They were dressed, and had an air of general respectability. 



Soon after leaving camp the Cceur d Alene lake came in view to the south of us, and eleven 

 miles from camp we struck it near its western extremity. It is a beautiful sheet of water, sur 

 rounded by picturesque hills mostly covered with wood. Its shape is irregular, unlike that 



