WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 363 



from Missouri, with all his family, last year: he did not like the 

 country, and wished to go to California by the first opportunity. His 

 principal objection, he told me, was to the climate, which was too wet 

 for business. He said that the land was good, but only for crops of 

 small grain, which there is no market for, nor is there a probability 

 of one for some time. Indian corn cannot be raised : it was, however, 

 a first-rate grazing country. He was a good specimen of a border- 

 man, and appeared to think nothing of a change of domicile, although 

 he is much past the middle age, with grown-up sons and daughters 

 around him. He intended to go to California, and if the country did 

 not please him, he would travel home by way of Mexico. His family 

 consisted of eight or ten persons.* 



George Gay now thought it proper to notify me that we ought not 

 to delay any longer, as we had to cross the Powder river, and he did 

 not know the state it was in. After a hard gallop, we reached that 

 stream at the usual fording-place. We, however, found that it was 

 entirely filled with drift-wood, and impassable at that place for our 

 horses. This difficulty was soon obviated, for while we were trans- 

 porting the saddles, &c, across the raft of timber, he had searched 

 out a place where the horses might cross, and dashed in on one of 

 them, while we drove the others into the river. We were soon 

 mounted again, and on our way. This stream is about four hun- 

 dred feet wide, and then about twenty feet deep. Quantities of large 

 and fine timber were locked together, until they entirely covered the 

 surface. 



The country now became exceedingly rough, overgrown with 

 brushwood, and in places wet and miry. It was chiefly covered with 

 heavy pine timber. From Dr. Bailey I learned that the small prairies 

 we occasionally passed were not capable of cultivation, owing to their 

 being flooded after a few hours of rain. 



A few miles further on we passed the Little Powder river, which 

 was termed fordable, though the horses were obliged to swim it, after 

 which Gay gave me a specimen of his rapid mode of riding. Having 

 made up my mind to follow, I kept after him, and on my arrival at the 

 falls, could not help congratulating myself that we had reached our 

 destination in safety, for the last few miles of the route was a sort of 

 break-neck one. 



At the falls I found Mr. Drayton comfortably encamped, and Mr. 

 and Mrs. Waller again pressed us to partake of their hospitality. I 



* Mr. Walker subsequently joined the party I sent across to California, from the Willa- 

 mette, and then entered the service of Mr. Suter. 



