466 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



interview with the waiakin or wolf. When they return, they relate 

 the conversation they have had with him, and proceed to effect cures, 

 &c. They are looked upon as invulnerable, and it is believed that balls 

 fired at them are flattened against their breasts. If affronted or injured, 

 they predict death to the offender, and the doom is considered inevi- 

 table. They use the same means of extricating diseases that have been 

 before described. 



Wild animals are now comparatively few, when compared with 

 their former numbers. They consist of wolves, large and small, who 

 prowl around the dwellings ; lynxes, bears, of the gray, brown, black, 

 and yellow colours, the former of which were the most numerous. 

 Beavers and otters are now both scarce. Rats, both water and musk, 

 are seen in numbers. 



Mr. Hale, the philologist of the Expedition, who was left in the 

 Oregon Territory, passed from Waiilaptu, the mission station of Dr. 

 Whitman, to Chimikaine and Fort Colville, by the Peluse river, 

 crossing the country over the middle sections of Oregon, about half 

 way between the route the party under Lieutenant Johnson pursued 

 to Lapwai. Mr. Hale describes the country as an upland plain, 

 covered with herbage, but without trees. There were no running 

 streams, but numerous ponds of fresh water. This is the most direct 

 route to Fort Colville, and is that usually chosen by the servants of 

 the Hudson Bay Company. It passes by the Peluse river, and follows 

 its windings. 



The falls upon this river are of some note, and are called Aputaput; 

 and they will hereafter be an object of interest to travellers in this 

 country. The river pours down, in a cataract of foam, through a 

 perpendicular descent of one hundred feet, and is received in a basin, 

 surrounded by basaltic walls, between two and three hundred feet in 

 height. These falls are celebrated in Indian mythology. Among 

 other legends, it is related that a woman of gigantic size lived in that 

 part of the country, with four brothers of equal stature. She became 

 very desirous of obtaining some beaver's fat, but whether for a deli- 

 cacy or cosmetic is not known. At this time there was only one 

 beaver, and that of enormous dimensions, inhabiting the banks of the 

 Snake river. The brothers hunted him for a long time without suc- 

 cess : many places along the river, in which he could harbour, were 

 searched, but without finding his hiding-places. Finally, the animal 

 was surprised at the mouth of the Peluse, which was then a peaceful 

 stream, winding through an even channel. As the beaver retreated 

 up the stream, he was pursued, and overtaken two miles from its 

 mouth. At first they pinned him to the earth with their spears, but 



