456 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



conclusive ; if acceptance takes place, the groom gives from one to five 

 horses to the bride's parents, they have a pow-wow, and the marriage 

 is concluded. They are often espoused in infancy, but it is not con- 

 sidered as binding on either side. The squaws sometimes make pro- 

 posals to the men. In other cases young girls are contracted for, and 

 the price paid down, some years in advance of the marriageable age. 



The missionaries had, as I understood, adopted the following rule 

 in relation to these connexions : all who already had wives were 

 required to maintain them, but no new ones w^ere to be taken. In 

 consequence of this regulation, there have been no new instances of 

 polygamy. 



The number of Indians that are supposed to speak dialects of the 

 Flathead language, is thought by the missionaries to be about five 

 thousand. Their weapons have been bows and arrows, which they 

 still use for small game : the arrows have iron points, but they use 

 guns in preference for killing the larger animals. 



On the 21st of June, at 3 p. bi., the party left the mission, being 

 accompanied on their way several miles by Mr. and Mrs. Walker. 

 After riding ten miles in a southerly direction, they reached the 

 Spokane river, and found it but one hundred feet wide, with a 

 current of three and a half miles an hour. They swam their horses 

 across, and passed over themselves and luggage in a canoe, which 

 is always left at this point, to ferry persons over. 



The formation of the country was now lava or trap, of which rock 

 the latitude of 48° N. seems to be the limit, after which it gives place 

 to granite. This was found to be the case also in the Straits of Fuca, 

 where the same parallel is the dividing line of the two rocks; and, as 

 far as our opportunities and information went, there seems to be but 

 little doubt that this line extends from the sea-coast to the Rocky 

 Mountains. We may, therefore, confidently state, that the whole 

 portion of the Oregon Territory to the south of the Spokane, is of 

 igneous formation : it is comparatively level, and offers a fine example 

 of the old-fashioned flinty trap. 



The tract of country from the mission to the Spokane is rather 

 sterile, and but thinly wooded, with spruce, larch, and pine, neither 

 of which is of great size. The banks or margin of the river, for some 

 distance on each side, is formed of sand and gravel, with a few alder 

 and willow bushes. The old chief, Bighead, joined the party here. 



On the 22d, they travelled thirty miles in an east-northeasterly 

 direction, from the Spokane. The country they passed over would 



