426 PUGET SOUND AND OKONAGAN. 



they encamped : this camp was found to be two thousand five hundred 

 and forty-one feet above the level of the sea. The vegetation appeared 

 to our botanical gentlemen farther advanced on the east side than on 

 the west, at the same height; the Pulmonarias and several small 

 annuals were more forward. There were only a few pine trees, and 

 those small, seen on the west side of the ridge ; and on the east side, 

 there was a species of larch, the hackmatack of the country. While 

 they remained at this camp, they found a Pyrola, and some new ferns. 



The country about the Spipen is mountainous and woody, with a 

 narrow strip of meadow-land along its banks. Mr. Waldron had, on 

 arriving at the camp, sent Lachemere, one of the Indians, down the 

 river to an Indian chief, in order to procure horses. Those that 

 remained after providing for the baggage, were consequently assigned 

 each to two or three individuals to ride and tye on their route. 



On the 30th, they proceeded down the Spipen, making a journey of 

 eighteen miles, and passed another branch of the river, the junction of 

 which augmented its size very considerably. Its banks, too, became 

 perpendicular and rocky, with a current flowing between them at the 

 rate of six or seven miles an hour. After the junction, the stream was 

 about one hundred feet broad, and its course was east-southeast. 



The vegetation on the east side of the mountains was decidedly 

 more advanced than that to the west, and several very interesting 

 species of plants were met with by the botanists, on the banks of the 

 streams : among them were Pseonia brownii, Cypripedium oregonium, 

 Pentstemon, Ipomopsis elegans, and several Compositae, and a very 

 handsome flowering shrub, Purshia tridentata. 



On the 31st, they continued their route over a rough country, in 

 some places almost impassable for a horse from its steepness, and in 

 others so marshy as to require much caution to prevent being mired. 



During the morning, they met two Indians, who informed them that 

 the chief of the Yakima tribe was a short distance in advance, waiting 

 to meet them, and that he had several horses. At noon they reached 

 a small prairie on the banks of the river, where old Tidias, the chief, 

 was seen seated in state to receive Lieutenant Johnson ; but this 

 ceremony was unavoidably broken in upon by the necessity of getting 

 the meridian observations. The chief, however, advanced towards 

 him with every mark of friendship, giving the party a hearty wel- 

 come. In person he was tall, straight, and thin, a little bald, with 

 long black hair hanging down his back, carefully tied with a worsted 

 rag. He was grave, but dignified and graceful. When they had been 

 seated, and after smoking a couple of pipes in silence, he intimated 



