ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 
seldom they would drink, and the haste 
with which they hurried to a small pool of 
better water was near proving fatal to one, 
for he stuck there so firmly that my guide 
and I (enfeebled by fatigue) were too weak 
to extricate him, and I had loaded my 
pistol to put an end to his misery and 
struggles, when the guide, in a fit of ill- 
temper, struck the creature so severely on 
the nose that he reared, and the point of 
my pen-knife, with which, as a last hope, 
I goaded his side, induced him to make 
such a desperate bound as delivered him 
from the difficulty. 
Wednesday, 23rd. — Last night was 
dreadfully hot, and the whole heavens in a 
blaze with sheet lightning. Parched like 
a cinder with heat and thirst, I lay down 
and passed a few miserable hours in vainly 
trying to obtain some sleep. Happily the 
Toad was less rugged, and at mid-day I 
found myself on the banks of the Columbia, 
Opposite the Oakanagan establishment, 
. Where an old man, who was spearing 
salmon, helped us to cross the horses, and 
put me and my guide over in a small 
canoe. Here I found my kind friends, 
Messrs, M‘Donald and Ermetinger, who 
Supplied me with a change of linen and 
Some comfortable food. Gladly would I 
€ tarried here two or three days to rest 
and Tecruit myself, but my time was too 
Precious; and having communicated to 
these gentlemen my desire to push on 
immediately for the coast, that I might put 
my collections on board the ship which 
was to sail so shortly for England, they 
kindly made arrangements with some In- 
É dians to conduct me to. the junction of 
Lewis and Clarke's River. Meanwhile 
I wrote a few lines to Mr. Dease, and sent 
them by the return of my guide, who had 
k haved entirely well, and who is to stay 
ere two or three days to rest himself, 
| Pe having picked up a few seeds, and 
X my plant-papers, I went early to 
E bed ; but the doors being left open, on 
: oo of the heat, and the windows, 
are made of parchment instead of 
hot closing tightly, the mosquitoes 
© access, Thus I was under the 
123 
necessity of abandoning the house, and 
betook myself to a sort of gallery over the 
gate, where I obtained some sound sleep. 
Before leaving this place next morni 
I took breakfast, and thankfully accepted a 
little tea and sugar, which, with a small 
portion of dried salmon, was all that my 
kind friends had to give. The stock of 
dried meat that I had received from Mr. 
Dease was not, however, quite exhausted, 
so that I considered myself pretty well off, 
particularly when they kindly added a little 
tin shaving pot, the only cooking utensil 
they could spare. Two miles and a half 
from this place a disaster deprived me of 
these gifts; in passing the canoe down a 
rapid, I took the precaution to lift out my 
paper, plants, seeds, and blanket, and was 
carrying these along the shore, when a 
surge struck the canoe in the middle of the 
rapid, and swept every article out of it 
except the dried meat, which had fortu- 
nately got wedged into the narrow place at 
the bottom. The loss of the tea and 
sugar, and the pot, was a great one in my 
present situation, but still I deemed myself 
happy in having saved the papers and 
seeds, though my collection of insects and 
my pistol were also gone. As I have des- 
cribed the appearance of this part of the 
Columbia on my ascent, I shall say but 
litle of my return. The passage of the 
Stony Islands, which is considered a dan- 
gerous place, was facilitated by hiring an 
Indian, who lived close by, and was better 
acquainted with this narrow channel (only 
twenty to thirty feet wide, and excessively 
rapid) than my guide, and who thought 
himself well paid with a few crumbs of 
tobacco, and a smoke out of my own pipe. 
Two days after, having quitted the canoe, 
near the Priest's Rapid, and walked several 
miles along the shore, while my two Indians 
should accomplish this difficult piece of 
navigation, I waited some time for their 
arrival, and feeling alarmed for their safety, 
returned a good way to look for them, 
when I found them comfortably seated on 
the shore, under a small cove, and treat- 
ing their friends to a share of the tobacco 
I had given them. At Walla-wallah, I 
