THE INTERIOR OF OREGON. 499 



oaks were passed, which appeared of a local character. This night 

 they again had a number of rattlesnakes in their camp. 



On the 8th, the valley had narrowed, and the banks becoming more 

 perpendicular, they had a great many difficulties to encounter. They 

 stopped at the camp of old Tidias, whom, it will be recollected, they 

 had encountered after crossing the mountains, and from whom they 

 obtained some horses. They soon afterwards arrived at the path 

 where they had turned off to the north. The river had fallen very 

 much during their absence, and there was a marked difference in 

 the season, the vegetation beinor much more backward than in the 

 parts they had recently visited. The berries were just beginning to 

 ripen, while in the plains, not twenty miles distant, they were already 

 over. Old Tidias determined to accompany them to Nisqually, taking 

 with him his son, and lending them several horses. The Spipen, up 

 which they passed, was now hemmed in by mountain ridges, occa- 

 sionally leaving small portions of level ground. They encamped at 

 the place they had occupied on the 30th of May. 



The vegetation, since they had passed this place, had so much 

 advanced that they had difficulty in recognising it again. The wet 

 prairies were overgrown with rank grass, from one to two feet in 

 height. After a short rest at the foot of the mountain, they began 

 its ascent, and reached the crest of the ridge in about three hours. 

 On every side they found a low growth of shrubs, which they had 

 not suspected when it was covered with snow, and causing the 

 summit to differ essentially from the broad ridge they had crossed 

 between the Yakima and Pischous rivers. They encamped for the 

 night on the edge of a wet prairie, which afforded pasturage for their 

 horses. 



The next day they passed through several similar prairies, and 

 descended the western slope of the mountain, where they found 

 more patches of snow than on the east side. This was just the 

 reverse of what they had found on their previous passage ; the season, 

 too, was evidently much less advanced. This circumstance was 

 supposed to be owing to the denser forest on the west, as well as 

 the absence of elevated plains. 



They encamped the same night at the little prairie before spoken of, 

 at the foot of the western slope. Before reaching it, they met a party 

 of men and women carrying a sick chief over the mountain, who was 

 evidently dying. It was affecting to see him stretching forth his 



