418 NOTES 01* TBAVEL AMONG 



being built at the mouth of a gully, formed by the Columbia Biver 

 through higli mouutainous laud, leading to the Pacific Ocean, it is 

 exposed to furious gales of wind, which rush through the opening 

 in the hills with inconceivable violence, and raise the sand in clouds 

 so dense and continuous as frequently to render travelling impos- 

 sible. I was kindly received by Mr. McBain, a cleik in the Hudson 

 Bay Company's service, who, with five men, had charge of the 

 Port. The establishment is kept up solely for the purpose of 

 trading Avitk the Indians from the interior, as those about the Post 

 have few or no peltries to deal in. 



The Walla-AValla Indians live almost entirely upon salmon 

 throughout the whole year. In the summer season they inhabit 

 lodges made of mats of rushes spread on poles. Owing to the 

 absence of trees iu their vicinity, they have to depend for the small 

 quantity of fuel which they require, upon the drift wood which they 

 collect from the river in the spring. In the winter they dig a 

 large circular excavation in the ground about ten or twelve feet 

 deep, and from forty to fifty feet iu circumference, and cover it over 

 with split logs, over which they place a layer of mud collected from 

 the river. A hole is left at one side of this roofing, only large 

 enough for one person to enter at a time. A stick with notches 

 reaches to the bottom of the excavation, and serves as a ladder by 

 means of which they ascend and descend into the subterranean 

 'ling. Here twelve or fifteen persons burrow through the 

 ■r, having little or no occasion for fuel, their food of dried 

 salmon being most frequently eaten uncooked, and the place being 

 excessively warm from the numbers congregated together in so small 

 and confined a space. They are frequently obliged, by the drifting 

 billows of sand, to close the aperture, when the heat and stench 

 become insupportable to all but those accustomed to it. The 

 drifting of the sand is a frightful feature in this barren waste. Great 

 numbers of the Indians lose their sight, aud even those who have 

 not suffered to so great an extent, have the appearance of labouring 

 under intense inflammation of these organs. The salmon, while in 

 the process of drying, also become filled with sand to such an extent 

 as to wear away the teeth of the Indians, and an Indian is seldom 

 met with over forty years of age whose teeth are not worn quite to 

 the gums. 



The day after my arrival at the Port I procured three horses 

 and a man, for the purpose of travelling into the interior of the 

 country, and visited the Pavilion and Nez-perces Indians. The 

 weather was excessively hot, and we suffered much from the want 



