PUGET SOUND AND OKONAGAN. 457 



brush ; and the vicinity to elevated plains and the ridge being of a 

 less broken character. 



The early part of the day was cold, with showers of sleet. On 

 the crest of the mountain they passed over swampy ground, with 

 but a few patches of spruces ; after passing which, they began to 

 descend very regularly towards the Columbia, which they reached 

 early in the afternoon, about three miles below the Pischous river. 

 The Columbia at this place is a rapid stream, but the scenery 

 differs entirely from that of other rivers : its banks are altogether 

 devoid of any fertile alluvial flats ; destitute even of scattered trees ; 

 there is no freshness in the little vegetation on its borders; the 

 sterile sands in fact reach to its very brink, and it is scarcely to be 

 believed until its banks are reached that a mighty river is rolling its 

 waters past these arid wastes. The river, in this section of the coun- 

 try, is generally confined within a ravine of from one thousand to 

 fifteen hundred feet below the general level of the country. It was 

 much swollen when our party reached it; but it is at no time fordable 

 here. Its width, by measurement made a few miles above, was six 

 hundred yards. 



A mile before reaching the banks of the Columbia, there were many 

 stupendous castellated rocks, of a yellow colour, which proved to be 

 a soft sandstone. The only shrub was the wormwood. 



They passed along the banks of the Columbia to the junction of 

 the Pischous. The course of the latter is to the southeast : it takes 

 its rise in a distant range of snowy mountains, which are seen in a 

 northwest direction. Half a mile above its mouth it is two hundred 

 and fifty yards wide, but the water of the river, in consequence of 

 the state of the Columbia, was backed up ; and although it was said 

 by the Indians not to have reached its full height, yet it appeared to 

 have risen to the high-water marks. 



They encamped on the southwest side of the river, in a beautiful 

 patch of meadow-land of about one hundred acres in extent, which 

 the Indians had enclosed in small squares by turf walls; and in 

 them they cultivated the potato in a very systematic manner. On 

 the meadows were found numbers of grouse and curlews, of which 

 they killed many. There were also many wild currants, just ripen- 

 ing. The Pischous was called here, by some of the Indians, the 

 Wainape. I have, however, retained the former name on the map as 

 being that by which it is more commonly known. 



VOL. IV. 115 



