488 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



prone to commit depredations on each other. This may be owing to 

 the apprehension that the difficulty would not only involve the 

 individual, but the whole tribe, which is a necessary consequence 

 among uncivilized people. 



Several of the Indians at the camp through which they passed, 

 were well dressed in robes obtained by themselves from the buffaloes ; 

 for these Indians, as well as others from the Oregon, near the coast, 

 visit the buffalo-grounds annually. 



The Indian, who spoke good English, stated that lie had been five 

 years at the white man's settlement. On his return he was made 

 chief, and at that time his authority was great in the tribe; but 

 now, owing to his propensity for gambling, he has lost all his influ- 

 ence. 



On the 24th, they passed through a fine rolling prairie country, 

 producing very fine pasture, and being well watered, though destitute 

 of wood. The distance made to-day was thirty miles. The plants 

 seen were Convolvulus, Frasera, Habenaria, Calochortus, Baptisia, 

 and Trifolium : this last is a good plant for cattle. 



During the day, they met a party of Indians travelling, with 

 abundance of spare horses, and in this case they were carrying even 

 their tent-poles, with which one of their horses was loaded : a proof 

 that underwood of the description used is scarce in the country. 

 Within thirty miles of Lapwai, the mission station on the Koos- 

 kooskee, they crossed a small tributary of the Snake river, thirty feet 

 wide and two deep. It was very winding, and its general course was 

 southwest. About twenty miles distant, in a south-southeast direc- 

 tion, they discovered a high snowy peak, which is situated near the 

 Grande Ronde, and is the highest point of what is termed the Blue 

 Ridge. On its summit the snow remains all the year round. 



Beyond the Snake or Lewis river, was a long even-topped ridge, 

 wooded on its upper parts, and covered with snow. This is the 

 mountain which Mr. Drayton ascended near the Wallawalla. From 

 the northwest, it has the appearance of an extensive and elevated 

 table-land. 



On the 25th, about noon, they reached the Kooskooskee, which is 

 two thousand feet below the plain they had been travelling on. It is 

 here eight hundred feet wide, and a powerful stream. Lewis and 

 Clarke fell upon this river about forty-five miles above this place, and 

 it is not difficult to imagine how they were induced to suppose that 

 they had reached the great river flowing to the west, so totally dif- 



