466 COUNTRY UPON SHOAWATER BAY AND PUGET SOUND. 



aquatic birds which visit it during the fall and spring. As regards its geology, the same tertiary 

 formation which exists at the mouth of the Columbia extends here also, and the only rock in 

 place is a sort of argillaceous limestone. There are evidences of comparatively recent changes 

 in the elevation of the land. Between the Copaluks and the Willopah, there is in a high clay bank 

 a stratum of shells chiefly of oysters and a species of clam, now extinct here, though said to 

 exist elsewhere on the coast. The bed is elevated from three to eight feet above the present 

 level, and is covered with earth in places to the height of thirty feet. A narrow seam of vege 

 table matter is visible in another place at a similar depth. Logs and stumps of trees protrude 

 from this bank, which is undergoing constant abrasion. At Stony Point there is a stratum of 

 transported boulders of large size, and a layer of gravel containing agates. 



The principal object of my journey was to explore the route connecting Shoalwater bay with 

 the interior. An old Indian trail, disused for some years since the extinction of the tribe through 

 whose country it ran, w r as said to lead from some point on the Willopah, and intersect the road 

 from the Cowlitz Farms to Puget sound. The journey, according to report, took but two days. 

 1 found it impossible to obtain Indian guides in consequence of the season the few remaining on 

 the bay, who had ever travelled it, being unwilling to venture out, and representing the trail as 

 entirely overgrown and difficult to follow. Three of the citizens, however, Messrs. J. L. Brown, 

 Charles Stuart, and Samuel Woodward, volunteered to accompany me, and we concluded at least 

 to make the attempt. On the 17th December we proceeded up the Willopah about fifteen miles 

 in a canoe, and then landing, started on foot, taking with us six days provisions. The nature of 

 the country not permitting us to follow any divide, we were compelled to travel through the river- 

 bottom, fording the stream occasionally at the bends. Finding, alter three days travel, that we 

 had made but fifteen miles, and being apprehensive that, should we be overtaken by heavy rains 

 or snow, we could neither advance nor return, I thought it prudent to abandon the attempt for 

 the time being, the more especially as we had got hold of the trail, and succeeded in ascertaining 

 the direction of the river, and the character of the country before us. 



The general course of the route will be seen by reference to the map. The lower part of the 

 river is bordered with tide-lands, at first open, but affording here and there higher land suitable 

 for grazing. The river is a mile wide at its mouth, narrowing to twenty-five yards, as a general 

 width, beyond the influence of the tides. These extend to the rapids, seventeen miles up, beyond 

 \vhich it is merely a bold stream. At this time it had fallen nearly to the common level; but a 

 few weeks before, it rose sixteen feet after a heavy rain. It is very winding, the banks high on 

 one side and flooded on the other. 



From the point where the tide ceased, open fern prairies commence, which are dotted along at 

 intervals for some miles. They vary from thirty to one hundred acres in extent, except the lower 

 one, which is one and a half mile long ; the rest is vine-maple bottom, very level, and with a 

 deep, rich soil of clayey character. The maple growth is exceedingly dense and tangled, so 

 much so that passage through it is next to impossible. Some heavy timber of spruce and arbor 

 vitae is scattered through the bottom, but not in sufficient quantities to render clearing difficult 

 compared with most land in the country. 



The general impression obtained is, that the bottom, above the reach of the tides, embraces a 

 tract of twenty by ten miles. But little of this is overflowed, and that only on the margin of the 

 streams. It is well watered. There are no continuous hills in this valley, but occasional spurs, 

 thickly w^ooded, from the tops of which we made what examination of the country was possible. 

 From the point of our return the range of hills separating the south fork of the Chihalis from the 

 Willopah appeared to be about fifteen miles from us in an easterly direction, bending, however, 

 on our right, considerably west of south, and uniting with those between the latter and the 

 Columbia, where there is apparently a gap. 



The only obstacle to a good road connecting the bay with the Cowlitz trail, is evidently this 

 range of hills ; and from the information we received from the Indians, as well as our own obser- 



