165 



Avith the Tahkali or Carriers, living on the headwaters of Frazer River, and 

 the Klatskanai, Umkwa, and Tii-tuten of Oregon. 



The position of the Tsiniik previous to their depopulation was, as at 

 once appears, most important. Occupying both sides of the great ai-tery of 

 Oregon for a distance of two hundred miles, they possessed the principal 

 thoroughfare between the interior and the ocean, boundless resources of 

 provision of various kinds, and facilities for trade almost unequaled on the 

 Pacific. From the Dalles to "Cape Iloi-n", below the Cascades, the river 

 flows westward through a pass in the mountains, and with but a narrow 

 margin occasionally intervening; but farther down it opens into what Lewis 

 and Clarke denominated the Wappatu Vallev, connecting with the valley 

 of the Willamette b}^ that river, and by the Kowlitz with the Tsihalis 

 country and the basin of Puget Sound. Through this district it runs 

 northward, the course of the valley trending with it until it is again diverted 

 by the Tsiuuk Mountains to its original westerly course. Toward the 

 mouth it spreads into extensive bays, the north side lined with precipitous 

 rocky bluffs of that range, v/hile on the south the mountains which sej)arate 

 it from the Twallatti plains close in and unite with the C^oast Range. 



From the Dalles to the Cascades, the navigation is uninterrupted. At 

 the latter point, which is the dividing ridge of the mountains, a series of 

 rapids occurs, below which the influence of the tides is felt, and the river may 

 be considered as navigable to the sea. The immense quantities of deposit 

 annually brought down during the freshet occasion, however, extensive 

 sand-bars, which are scattei'ed at intervals to its mouth, encumber its 

 estuary, and to a great degree create the difficulties of its entrance. The 

 banks of the Columbia, where elevated above the freshets, are clothed with 

 evergreens, fir and spruce predominating, and the same vegetation extends 

 over the general face of the surrounding country, which, joined to its rocks 

 of basalt and volcanic conglomerate, throw an aspect of gloom over the 

 landscape. It is only in the early summer when the Cottonwood and maple 

 of the low grounds are in fresh leaf that the prevailing monotony is broken. 

 The freshets of the Columbia overflow not merely the low islands, but most 

 of the alluvial country bordering the river. They take place during the 

 summer commencing in May or June according to the mildness of the 



