240 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



to the establishment of a station there, as no one could tell what these 

 high-spirited northern Indians might do at any moment in a remote and 

 uninhabited place like the canon of the Pend d'Oreille, provided they 

 resented the advent of white men, as they undoubtedly would. I wish I 

 to say, by way of explanation, that I do not consider the country in ques- 

 tion unsafe for white men to travel through, nor is there any likelihood 

 of an outbreak by the native inhabitants along the river. I do not mean 

 that either of these things is probable. What I mean to say is that, if a ^ 

 small body of white men should go into the caiion to stay and theirf 

 presence should be objectionable to the savage residents of the country, 

 they would probably find some means of getting rid of the obnoxious 

 intruders. 



Below the falls, near Seniakwoteen, to the mouth of Clarke's Fork, and' il 

 from there on the Columbia to the mouth of Snake River, any i)lace, , 

 however favorable on other accounts, would be out of the question as a i 

 collecting and distributing point for salmon eggs, on account of its dis- 

 tance from the railroad and its general inaccessibility. I will add that r 

 there is scarcely a white man to be found in that whole region of f 

 nearly 10,000 square miles, embraced between the Pend d'Oreille Eiver r 

 on the north and east, the Columbia on the west, and the forty-eighth 

 parallel on the south, except the very few settlers directly on the Colum- 

 bia and Colville Rivers. 



It might be thought that if a station was established on the Colum- 

 bia, supplies could be brought up the river by steamer. This, however, 

 could not be depended on at present, because from Priest Eapids to 

 Grand Eapids, inclusive, the river is unnavigable at the following 

 places, viz. : At Priest Eapids, 409 miles from the mouth of the Colum- 

 bia; at Cabinet Eapids and Eock Island Eapids, 463 miles; at Foster 

 Creek Eapids, Whirlpool Eapids, and Mahkin Eapids, 559 to 582 miles ; 

 at Spokane Eapids, 646 miles; and at Grand Eapids, 704 miles. 



But as navigation could be opened through these rapids at a reason^ 

 able expense, and as this will probably be done sometime, because il^ 

 would open up a navigable river distance of 302 miles to Kettle Falls^ 

 the time may come when it will be found desirable to establish a hatch- 

 ing station somewhere on the Columbia Eiver between the mouth o| { 

 Snake Eiver and Kettle Falls, which latter place itself seems to present 

 many conditions favorable to such an undertaking. I 



It was remarked above that the Northern Pacific Eailroad leaves tbe| 

 valley of Clarke's Fork quite abruptly just below Lake Pend d'Oreille j 

 From here it pursues a general southwesterly course, crossing the.^ 

 great plain of the Columbia and not reaching the river again till it gets * 

 to Ainsworth, a railroad station on the Columbia at the mouth of thej 

 Snake Eiver. On its way, however, it crosses an important riveri|| 

 This river is the Spokane, a stream flowing out of C(Bur d'AlSne Lak 

 and emptying into the Columbia 309 miles above the mouth of Snake"' 

 Eiver and 645 miles from the ocean. The Spokane has always been 



