314 NISQUALLY AND COLUMBIA RIVER. 



fish are caught in great quantities, and dried for food ; they are also used 

 for candles or torches ; for, being very full of oil, they burn brightly. 



These Indians had a quantity of the cammass-root, which they had 

 stored in baskets. It is a kind of sweet squills, and about the size of a 

 small onion. It is extremely abundant on the open prairies, and par- 

 ticularly on those which are overflowed by the small streams. 



After leaving these lodges, a few yards beyond the soil changed 

 from gravel to a rich unctuous clay. We crossed a branch of the 

 Chickeeles, and passed over some high hills, which we found exceed- 

 ingly difficult to accomplish, being in places quite miry, in which our 

 pack-horses not {.infrequently were stuck fast: few roads in any country 

 could be worse. 



The woods and underbrush now became so thick that it was with 

 difficulty that a horse and his rider could pass ; for, whilst the former 

 was extricating his legs from the mud-holes, the latter required all his 

 attention and exertions to prevent himself from being strangled or 

 dragged from his horse by the branches. This was not all : fallen 

 trees were to be jumped or hobbled over as we best could, which was 

 very exhausting to the patience. Our friends at Nisqually had told 

 us we should find this part of the road good, yet we found it barely 

 passable. I would, however, advise all who travel this road to prepare 

 for a bad one. But what increased the discomfort of the road to 

 me, w^as the news I received by an Indian messenger, with letters an- 

 nouncing to me that the Peacock had not yet arrived. 



We finally succeeded in reaching the top of the hill, which is about 

 fifteen hundred feet high, by a zigzag path, literally climbed by steps 

 which had been made by the horses' feet, and without which it would 

 be impossible to mount it in the direction w T e did, the clay is so 

 slippery. 



After reaching the crest of this ridge, we were amply repaid for our 

 labour by one of the most charming views I saw in Oregon, extend- 

 ing to a distance over the luxuriant country, while at our feet lay one 

 of the beautiful prairies, bedecked in every hue of the rainbow, with 

 the Chickeeles winding through it. We descended, and passed over 

 the prairie to some Indian lodges, whose inhabitants were squalid and 

 dirty as usual ; and as an evidence of their want of natural feeling, 

 near by lay one of their horses, with one of his fore-legs broke short 

 and just hanging by the skin. To the question, why they did not kill 

 the horse, they gave no answer, but looked at the interpreter with 

 apparent contempt and listlessness. Desirous of avoiding the lodges, 

 with their inmates and vermin, we proceeded about a mile beyond 

 them, and encamped on the edge of a fine forest of pines. 



