[®] EXPLORATIONS ON COLUMBIA RIVER. 241 



famous as a great salmon river. Dr. Suckley often mentions it in 

 that connection, and ever since the country has been opened up by 

 white men it has been known that the Indians from all quarters assem- 

 ble in the fall on this river and at the mouth of the Little Spokane, 8 

 miles to the northwest, to get their winter's stock of salmon. When I 

 arrived at Spokane Falls, which is the point at which the railroad 

 touches the Spokane Eiver, and which is 70 miles from its mouth, I 

 heard that Indians were fishing for salmon at the mouth of the Little 

 Spokane, 8 miles distant. On driving over to the Little Spokane we 

 found a large camp of Indians there, several of whom were indus- 

 triously engaged in putting a salmon trap across the river. These 

 traps consist of a dam of poles firmly bound together by withes and 

 extending entirely across the river, with holes or traps at intervals 

 into which the salmon can enter, but from which they cannot return. 

 Having brought an interpreter with us we soon learned from the In- 

 dians that great numbers of spawning salmon came up to the mouth of 

 the Little Spokane about the 1st of September. It was impossible to 

 learn from the Indians how many salmon could be caught there in the 

 spawning season, owing, I presume, to a trait which I have often ob- 

 served among Indians, a^z., an inability to fix with any precision upon 

 exact numbers. For instance, when the interpreter asked the Indian 

 he was talking with if twenty-five was the number that they caught in 

 a day, the Indian answered yes; and when he asked him if they caught 

 a hundred a day, he also said yes ; and his other replies in regard to 

 the numbers of the salmon caught were of the same character. How- 

 ever, the general impression left on our minds was that a great many 

 salmon were caught here during the entire spawning season, possibly 

 enough to warrant the establishing of a hatching station at the mouth 

 of the Little Spokane. 



Leaving the subject of the Spokane Eiver. here, I will remark upon 

 the other streams flowing into the Columbia below the mouth of Snake 

 Eiver, and will return to discuss more fully the expediency of operating 

 on the Spokane. 



As before mentioned, the transcontinental railroad, after leaving the 

 Spokane Eiver, crosses the great plain of the Columbia and the dry bed 

 of the ancient Lake Lewis, and does not strike the Columbia or any of 

 its tributaries until it reaches the mouth of Snake Eiver. From the 

 mputh of Snake Eiver it follows the Columbia down past The Dalles * 

 and through the Cascade range of mountains almost to its terminus 

 at Portland. 



Of course the Columbia itself below Snake Eiver, and Snake Eiver 

 anywhere near its mouth, are not to be thought of in connection with 



* To avoid giving a wrong impression, perhajjs I bad better state here that the 

 Northern Pacific Railroad proper terminates at Wallula Junction, Wash., at the 

 mouth of the Walla Walla River, and that thence to Portland the railroad is owned 

 and operated by the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. 

 H. Mis. G7 10 



