NARRATIVE OF 1853. 135 
around us. This shows what good results can flow from the labor of devoted missionaries; for 
the Spokanes had had no religious instruction for the last five years. As I went down the river 
and met band after band of the Spokanes, I invariably found the same regard for religious 
services. | 
Afterwards they came around my camp бге and we had a talk. They tell me that six days 
since Governor Ogden and three gentlemen, with some soldiers, left Walla-Walla for Colville, 
to meet me. Garry, they say, is at his farm, four miles from the Spokane House. I spoke to 
them also in reference to their being on friendly terms with the Cœur d’ Alénes. 
The country through which we have passed to-day, though obstructed with fallen timber, 
and rolling, and at times broken in surface, was arable, and reminded me of a great deal of 
country that I have seen in New England, where there are now productive farms; and it was 
so with the wooded portion of the journey of October 16, lying between our camp and the 
Cour Ф Aléne prairie. The country intermediate between this and Clark’s Fork, on the Pend 
d'Oreille lake, was described to me by the fathers and brothers at the Cœur 4” Aléne Mission 
we had just left as also arable, well watered, and not much intersected by spurs or ridges. 
October 16.—We started at 8 o'clock, our route being through an open wooded prairie. Soon 
after leaving camp the Cœur d'Aléne lake came in view to the south of us, and eleven miles 
from camp we struck it near its western extremity. It is a beautiful sheet of water, surrounded 
by picturesque hills mostly covered with wood. Its shape is irregular, unlike that given it 
upon the maps. Its waters are received from the Coeur d'Aléne river, which runs through it. 
Below the lake the river is not easily navigable, there being many rapids, and in numerous 
instances it widens greatly and runs sluggishly through a shallow channel. Above the lake, I 
am informed by the missionaries that it is navigable nearly to the Mission, Upon the eastern 
side appears a range of hills, along the eastern base of which I think the road from the Mission 
to Walla-Walla passes. Leaving the lake, we followed the river on its northern bank, passing 
а camp of Cœur d' Alénes, occupied with their trout fisheries. Неге we witnessed a touching 
‘sight, a daughter administering to her dying father. Still keeping through open woods on а 
most excellent road, in two miles further we came to the Coeur d' Aléne prairie, a beautiful 
tract of land containing several hundred square miles. Trap rock, projecting above the surface 
. of the ground, borders the river as we enter the prairie. Continuing on, we met а half-breed, 
Francis Finlay, on his way to the Bitter Root valley with his family, among whom we saw his 
pretty half-breed daughter. He lives near Colville, just beyond the ferry: They were well 
dressed, and had a very respectable appearance. After crossing the prairie a distance of some 
eighteen miles, we continued on and encamped ata spring with sparse grass. Had we gone 
two miles further we should have found an excellent camp on the river, and the next morning 
some of our animals were found in this very spot. Three miles before reaching camp we 
struck Saxton's trail, (edge of the , prairie,) and near by we met some Spokanes, who said Garry 
was at his farm, and that he had caught some of the horses left by Saxton. The horses of the 
Spokanes roam over this prairie in herds of from 12 to 20. Towards the latter portion of the 
march the river runs over a rocky bed of trap. 
FALLS OF THE SPOKANE. 
October 17.—Leaving camp, Antoine, Osgood, Stanley and myself turned from the trail to 
Visit the falls of the Cœur 4” Aléne river, while Lavatte took the train ahead on the trail to the 
Spokane House. There are two principal falls, (see sketch)—one of 20 feet and the other of 
from 10 to 12 feet; in the latter, there being a perpendicular fall of seven or eight feet; for а 
