FROM CANTONMENT STEVENS TO FORT DALLES. 533 



continue to be very high, though, on account of the hazy, smoky atmosphere, we could not see 

 them very distinctly. We noticed on the trail to-day ibr the first time great quantities of cedar, 

 some of the trees growing to enormous sizes, though none so large as those in the Coeur d Alene 

 country, the largest that I measured being thirty-six feet in circumference. We noticed also the 

 box, the white maple, the ground willow, and the cherry, the latter bearing a red bitter fruit, that 

 tastes not unlike the green English cherry. No game save a single grouse was seen during the 

 day. At seven miles from our camp we reached a small prairie with two small lakes, affording 

 excellent grass. Here we observed the long-leafed pine, growing from ten to fifteen feet high. 

 A few miles farther we reached a second prairie, through which flowed a small stream, towards 

 the north. Our road for the remainder of the day led through an immense pine and cedar forest, 

 being much obstructed by underbrush. Seventeen miles from our camp we reached a rapid 

 stream of fifteen yards wide, flowing towards the west. We crossed a fork of this creek from the 

 northeast. At its mouth it flows through high pine-clad mountains over a rocky bed. After 

 travelling a distance of thirty miles we reached a large and beautiful prairie, with grass two feet 

 high, through which flowed a stream two feet deep, towards the southwest, with a rapid current. 

 We had thus descended the last of the rocky range, and had now before us an open and some 

 what inviting country. We had thus been in the mountains eleven days, our road being rugged 

 and rough during the whole time. The prairie upon which we to-night encamped extended for 

 five miles in length and one in width, and was surrounded by thick pine forests. We had during the 

 morning a view for the first time of the Blue mountains, about one hundred miles distant. 



September 30. We resumed our march at an early hour, following down the creek upon which 

 we had encamped for a distance of two miles through pine openings, affording us an excellent 

 and level road. Here the trail tended more to the north, leading over a series of hills covered 

 with fallen timber. Here we reached a small creek from the east flowing through a low bottom 

 fringed with willow, the sides of the hills or mountains being clad with pine. We followed this 

 creek for six miles through beautiful pine openings with small patches of prairie, affording us an 

 excellent road. In these prairies the soil is very fertile, being a rich dark loam. At the end of 

 six miles we again entered the thick timber, crossing a small divide separating two creeks that 

 flow into the Clearwater ; the timber upon this divide we found to be principally cedar and fir. 

 We soon fell upon the head of a second creek flowing towards the west, and called by the Nez 

 Perces Indians Esh-ske-esh-skil, and two miles farther reached the main Camash prairie. It is 

 two miles wide and six or eight in length, perfectly level, and enclosed on all sides by forests of 

 pine growing from sixty to eighty feet in height. Through the prairie is a small creek or slough, 

 around which they encamp during the camash season. It is a great resort for all the Indians in 

 this vicinity, principally the Nez Perces, Cceur d Alenes, a.nd sometimes Spokanes, it being a 

 favorite racing ground with all the Indians. Here we struck a large trail which tended to the 

 Nez Perces camp ; this Camash prairie being sixteen miles from our camp of yesterday, and 

 twelve to the Clearwater river. Six miles from the Clearwater we reached a large creek flowing 

 with a rapid current over a rocky, stony bed, through high, rocky, steep mountains. This creek 

 is called by the Nez Perces Nahwah ; it is twenty yards wide, and empties into the Clearwater 

 about twenty miles below the Nez Perces camp ; we crossed this creek and began the ascent 

 of a steep mountain, the last of the Rocky and Bitter Root ranges. This mountain was formed 

 principally of a light friable rock, containing much mica. Gaining the summit of this mountain, 

 we had an excellent view in every direction. In front of us lay the broad ocean of prairie upon 

 which we were about to enter, and behind us the immense bed of rugged and uninviting mount 

 ains with which we had been but too familiar. To the south lay distinctly in view some steep 

 spurs of the Snake River chain towering high in the sky, while towards the north lay the rugged 

 chain bordering the Cceur d Alene country on the south. It was after sunset when we reached 

 the Clearwater, which we found to be a stream one hundred and thirty yards in width, channel- 

 water two feet deep, and flowing in some places with a rapid current, over a rocky and pebbly 



