NISQUALLY AND COLUMBIA RIVER. 



313 



expect to see some beautiful mansion, as a fit accompaniment to such 

 scenery. 



We soon reached the Bute Prairies, which are extensive, and covered 

 with tumuli or small mounds, at regular distances asunder. As far as 

 I could learn, there is no tradition among the natives relative to them. 

 They are conical mounds, thirty feet in diameter, about six to seven 

 feet high above the level, and many thousands in number. Being 

 anxious to ascertain if they contained any relics, I subsequently visited 

 these prairies, and opened three of the mounds, but nothing was found 

 in them but a pavement of round stones. 



After a ride of twelve miles, we reached Chickeeles river, which 

 empties itself into Gray's Harbour, about forty miles north of the 

 Columbia. We found the stream about two hundred yards wide in 

 this place, and running in a southwest direction. On its banks there 

 were a few lodges, containing about twenty Indians of the Nisqually 

 tribe, who had come here to make preparations for the salmon-fishery, 

 then about to commence, (20th May.) They were a miserable-looking 

 set, barely covered with pieces of dirty blankets and skins. 



Subsequently, on my return, I made a sketch of this place, after the 

 salmon-fishery had been established, which is represented in the vignette. 



We stopped here for two hours, to rest our horses. Hanging around 





their lodges were hundreds of lamprey eels, from a foot to eighteen 

 inches long, and about an inch in diameter. We were told that these 



VOL. IV. 2B 40 



