[amy . 182 
The road now led along the mountain side, around heads of the precipi- 
tous ravines ; and, keeping men ahead to cleara road, we passed alternately 
through bodies of timber and small open prairies, and encamped in a large 
meadow, in view of the great prairie below. . 
At sunset the thermometer was at 40°, and the night was very clear and 
oright. Water was only to be had here by descending a bad ravine, into 
which we drove our animals, and had much trouble with them, in a very 
‘lose growth of small pines. Mr. Preuss had walked ahead, and did not get 
snto camp this evening. The trees here maintained their size, and one of the 
black spruces measured 15 feet in circumference. In the neighborhood of 
the camp, pines have reappeared here among the timber. $ 
October 23.—The morning was very clear; there had been a heavy 
white frost during the night, and at sunrise the thermometer was at 31° 
Sessich two thick bodies of timber, in which I noticed some 
_ small trees of hemlock spruce, (perusse,) the forest became more open, and 
we had no longerany trouble to clear a way. The pines here were 11 or 12 
feet in circumference, andabout 110 feet high, and appeared to love the open 
grounds. Thi trail now led along one of the long spurs of the mountain, 
descending gradually towards the plain; and after a few miles travelling, we 
emerged finally from the forest, in full view of the plain below, and saw 
the snowy mass of Mount Hood, standing high out above the surrounding 
“country, at the distance of 180 miles. The road along the ridge was ex- 
lent, and the grass very green and good; the old grass having been burnt 
off early in the autumn. About 4 o’clock in the afternoon we reached a 
little bottom on the Walahwalah river, where we found Mr. Preuss, who 
yesterday had reached this place, and found himself too far in advance of 
the camp to return. The stream here has just issued from the narrow ra- 
vines, which are walled with précipices, in which the rock has a brown 
and more burnt appearance than above. | a 
_ At sunset the thermometer was at 48°; and our position was in longitude 
118° 09’ 39", and in latitude 45° 53’ 35". 
The morning was clear, with a temperature at sunrise of 24° Crossing 
_the river, we travelled over a hilly country with good bunch grass; the 
iver bottom, which generally contains the best soil in other countries, being 
here a sterile level of rock and pebbles. We had found the soil in the Blue 
mountains to bevof excellent quality, and it appeared also to be good here 
among the lower hills. Reaching a little eminence, over which the trail 
i 
bial 
bad 
ead over its bottom in’a net work, of » , receiving 
es from the mountains. There was a band of several 
_ ‘hundred horses grazing on the hills about two miles ahead; and as we 
dv the road weet other bands, which Indians were driving out 
also on the hills. True to its general character, the reverse of 
tries, the hills and mountains here were rich in grass, the bottoms.” 
six miles we crossed a principal fork, below which the scattered water 
of the river was gathered into one channel; and, passing on the way sev- 
eral unfinished houses, and some cleared patches, where corn and potatoes 
were cultivated, we reached, in about eight miles farther, the missionary 
establishment of Dr. W) ‘itman, which consisted, at this time, of one adobe 
fouse—i. e. built of unburnt bricks, as in Mexico. 
Dr. Whitman absent on a visit to the Dadies of the Columbia ; 
m3 a a hRne-loo! ] : 
aie d the pleasure to see Kins 
