472 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



is surrounded by high, pickets, with bastions, forming a formidable 

 defensive work against the Indians. Within the pickets all the 

 dwellings and store-houses of the Company are enclosed. 



The peculiar character of the soil renders Colville superior, for the 

 purposes of cultivation, to any other spot on the upper waters of the 

 Columbia. 



The Kettle Falls are one of the greatest curiosities in this part of 

 the country. They are formed by a tabular bed of quartz that crosses 

 the river, and which, being harder than the rocks either above or 

 below, has of course suffered less by abrasion, and thus formed a 

 basin that renders the name appropriate. The total descent of the 

 water is fifty feet, though the perpendicular fall in no place exceeds 

 fifteen feet, which is, however, more than sufficient to prevent the 

 passage of boats. At the foot of the falls the breadth of the river is 

 two thousand three hundred and thirty feet, and the rate of the 

 current is four miles an hour. This breadth is somewhat narrowed 

 by an island, about midway of which is the first fall, which is almost 

 entirely unbroken. Thence the river forces its way over a rocky 

 bed until it reaches the main fall, where the water is thrown into 

 every variety of shape and form, resembling the boiling of a kettle, 

 from which the falls derive their name. 



There is an Indian village on the banks of the great falls, inhabited 

 by a few families, who are called " Quiarlpi," (Basket People,) from 

 the circumstance of their using baskets to catch their fish, (salmon.) 

 The season for the salmon-fishery had not yet arrived, so that our 

 gentlemen did not see the manner of taking the fish ; but as described 

 to them, the fishing apparatus consists of a large wicker basket, sup- 

 ported by long poles inserted into it, and fixed in the rocks. The 

 lower part, which is of the basket form, is joined to a broad frame, 

 spreading above, against which the fish, in attempting to jump the 

 falls, strike, and are thrown back into the basket. This basket, 

 during the fishing season, is raised three times in the day, (twentj^- 

 four hours,) and at each haul, not unfrequently, contains three 

 hundred fine fish. A division of these takes place at sunset each 

 day, under the direction of one of the chief men of the village, and 

 to each family is allotted the number it may be entitled to : not only 

 the resident Indians, but all who may be there fishing, or by accident, 

 are equally included in the distribution. 



At the lower end of the falls are large masses of quartz rock, on 

 which the Indians dry their fish. Few of the salmon, even if able 



