222 



natural, and not the result of docking. This I suppose to be a distinct one. 

 The Indian dogs are much valued by their owners, particularly those em- 

 ployed in hunting. 



SYMBOLIC WRITING. 



I am not aware how far this may be carried among the Sound tribes. 

 Probably there is no great essential difference between them and their 

 neighbors of the plains in this art. It may perhaps be best explained by 

 an example given me by a veteran mountaineer. Dr. Robert Newell, of 

 Champoeg. A party of Snakes are going to hunt strayed horses. A figm-e 

 of a man, with a long queue, or scalp-lock, reaching to his heels, denoted 

 Shoshonee; that tribe being in the habit of braiding horse- or other hair into 

 their own in that manner. A number of marks follow, signifying the strength 

 of the party. A foot-print, pointed in the direction they take, shows their 

 course, and a hoof-mark turned backward, that they expect to return with 

 animals. If well armed, and expecting a possible attack, a little powder 

 mixed with sand tells that they are ready, or a square dotted about the 

 figures indicates that they have fortified. These pictographs are often an 

 object of study to decipher the true meaning. The shrewder or more 

 experienced old men consult over them. It is not every one that is suffi- 

 ciently versed in the subject to decide correctly. 



There are, I believe, no permanent symbolic writings below the Cas- 

 cades like those which occur upon some of the rocks on the Columbia River 

 above them, and attributed by the present Indians to the Eli2) Tilikum, or 

 primeval race. 



MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS. 



Mention has been made in my former report of a circular work on the 

 Yakama River, the construction of which those Indians disclaimed. That 

 was the first of the kind which had ever fallen under my observation, or which 

 I had been informed of within this Territory or Oregon. Since then. Dr. 

 Newell has informed me that, in some parts of the Willamette Valley, as on 

 the Twallatti plains, for instance, there are indubitable earthworks, some 

 of them of various forms, of which he mentioned the letter L- None of 

 them, to his knowledge, presented the figures of animals. I am aware of 

 none on the Lower Columbia or Pueret Sound which deserve the name. 



