COLUMBIA RIVER. 335 



Hanging around their lodges were hundreds of lamprey eels, from 

 a foot to eighteen inches long, and about an inch in diameter. We 

 were told that these fish are caught in great quantities, and dried for 

 food ; they are also used for candles or torches ; for, being very full of 

 oil, they burn brightly. 



Subsequently, on my return, I made a sketch of this place, after 

 the salmon-fishery had been established, which is represented in the 

 vignette. 



SALMON riSHEHY ON CHtCKELIS RIVEB-- 



These Indians had a quantity of the cammass-root, which they had 

 stored in baskets. It is a kind of sweet squills, and about the size of 

 a small onion. It is extremely abundant on the open prairies, and 

 particularly on those which are overflowed by the small streams. 



After leaving these lodges, a few yards beyond the soil changed 

 from gravel to a rich unctuous clay. We crossed a branch of the 

 Chickeeles, and passed over some high hills, which we found exceed- 

 ingly difficult to accomplish, being in places quite miry, in which 

 our pack-horses not unfrequently were stuck fast : few roads in any 

 country could be worse. 



The woods and underbrush now became so thick that it was with 

 difficulty that a horse and his rider could pass ; for, whilst the former 

 was extricating his legs from the mud-holes, the latter required all 

 his attention and exertions to prevent himself from being strangled 

 or dragged from his horse by the branches. This was not all : fallen 

 trees were to be jumped or hobbled over as we best could, which was 



