WALLAWALLA. 407 



the Cascades. Their mode of transporting the goods, and the faci- 

 lities with which they do it, are equally novel. The load is secured 

 on the back of a voyageur by a band which passes round the forehead 

 and under and over the bale; he squats down, adjusts his load, and 

 rises with ninety pounds on his back ; another places ninety pounds 

 more on the top, and off he trots, half bent, to the end of the portage. 

 One of the gentlemen of the Company informed me, that he had seen 

 a voyageur carry six packages of ninety pounds each on his back 

 (five hundred and forty pounds); but it was for a wager, and the 

 distance was not more than one hundred yards. The voyageurs in 

 general have not the appearance of being very strong men. At these 

 portages, the Indians assist for a small present of tobacco. The boats 

 seldom escape injury in passing; and in consequence of that which 

 they received on this occasion, the party was detained the rest of the 

 day repairing damages. 



On their starting next morning, they found that the boats leaked ; 

 and put on shore again to gum them. This operation, Mr. Drayton 

 describes thus. On landing the goods, the boats are tracked up and 

 turned bottom up, when they are suffered to dry; two flat-sided 

 pieces of fire-wood, about two feet long, are then laid together, and 

 put into the fire, until both are well lighted, and the wood burns 

 readily at one end and in the space between ; they then draw the 

 lighted end slowly along the gummed seam, blowing at the same 

 time between the sticks : this melts the gum, and a small spatula is 

 used to smooth it off" and render the seam quite tight. The common 

 gum of the pine or hemlock is that used ; and a supply is always 

 carried with them. 



A short distance above the Cascades, they passed the locality of 

 the sunken forest, which was at the time entirely submerged. Mr. 

 Drayton, on his return, visited the place, and the water had fallen so 

 much as to expose the stumps to view : they were of pine, and quite 

 rotten, so much so that they broke when they were taken hold of 

 He is of opinion that the point on which the pine forest stands, has 

 been undermined by the great currents during the freshets; and that it 

 has sunk bodily down until the trees were entirely submerged. The 

 whole mass appears to be so matted together by the roots as to pre- 

 vent their separation. Changes, by the same undermining process, 

 were observed to be going on continually in other parts of the river. 



On the 30th of June, they had a favourable wind, but it blew so 

 hard that they were obliged to reef their sail, and afterwards found the 



