ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 237 



canoe, and pushed off into the stream. On arriving at the fort, 

 I deposited my prize in the store house, and sewed around it a 

 large Indian mat, to give it the appearance of a bale of guns. 

 Being on a visit to the fort, with Indians whom I had engaged 

 to paddle my canoe, I thought it unsafe to take the mummy on 

 board when I returned to Vancouver the next day, but left 

 directions with Mr. Walker to stow it away under the hatches 

 of a little schooner, which was running twice a week between 

 the two forts. 



On the arrival of this vessel, several days after, I received, 

 instead of the body, a note from Mr. Walker, stating that an 

 Indian had called at the fort, and demanded the corpse. He 

 was the brother of the deceased, and had been in the habit of 

 visiting the tomb of his sister every year. He had now come 

 for that purpose, from his residence near the " turn-water,^'' 

 (cascades,) and his keen eye had detected the intrusion of a 

 stranger on the spot hallowed to him by many successive pil- 

 grimages. The canoe of his sister was tenantless, and he knew 

 the spoiler to have been a white man, by the tracks upon the 

 beach, which did not incline inward like those of an Indian. 



The case was so clearly made out, that Mr. W. could not 

 deny the fact of the body being in the house, and it was accord- 

 ingly delivered to him, with a present of several blankets, to 

 prevent the circumstance from operating upon his mind to the 

 prejudice of the white people. The poor Indian took the body of 

 his sister upon his shoulders, and as he walked away, grief got 

 the better of his stoicism, and the sound of his weeping was 

 heard long after he had entered the forest. 



25i/^. — Several weeks ago the only son of Ke-ez-a-no, the prin- 

 cipal chief of the Chinooks, died. The father was almost 

 distracted with grief, and during the first paroxysm attempted to 

 take the life of the boy's mother, supposing that she had exerted 

 an evil influence over him which had caused his death. She 



