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Flathead of the Rocky Mountains, whose vh-tnes approach him more nearly 

 to the ideal savage of romance than any other upon the continent, was the 

 kinsman, if not the progenitor of the Niskwalli; or the "Comanche" a rela- 

 tive of the Snake "Digger". 



In a geographical view, the district presents three natural divisions: 

 the Columbia River, the Coast, and Puget Sound; to which might perhaps 

 be added a fourth, in the prairie country between the Kowlltz River and the 

 Puyallup. The Cascade Range, wdiich separates the latter from the great 

 interior basin has a general elevation of from five to seven thousand feet, 

 much broken however by ridges and elevated points; the great volcanic 

 peaks: four of which, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. 

 Baker, lie north of the Columbia: towering far above all. The width 

 of this range varies from fifty to seventy-five miles. It is timbered on the 

 east side with pines and larch; on the Avest, with fir, spruce, and the white 

 cedar or arhor vUcb. The forest country on the western side may be said 

 to extend to the ocean, the prairies occupying a comparatively small area. 

 The skill of the Indians not enabling them to cope with the forest, they 

 have been confined for the most part to the borders of the rivers and sound, 

 to the coast, and the small prairies between the sound and the Columbia. 



The banks of the Columbia, from the Grand Dalles to its mouth, belong 

 to the two branches of the *Tsinuk nation, which meet in th.e neighborhood 

 of the Kowlitz River, and of which an almost nominal remnant is left; upon 

 the elevated plateau lying south of Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens, 

 and upon the southern and western slopes of the latter, are the Klikatat 

 and the Tai-tin-apam ; on the Kowlitz, the tiibe of that name, once numer- 

 ous, but now almost extinct; and in the mountains north of the Lower 

 Columbia, between Shoalwater Bay and the heads of the Tsihalis, the tribe 

 of Willopah, (Owhillapsh,) or, as termed by Mr. Hale, Kwalhioqua, now 

 reduced to a handful. These alone belong to four of the five families of 

 languages above mentioned: the Tsinuk together forming one; Klika- 

 tat and Taitinapam belonging to the Salmptin, of which the Walla- 

 Walla and Nez Percd are the leading types; the Kowlitz to the western 

 branch of the Sellsh or Flatheads, and the Willopah to the same division 



'Chinook of authors. 



