432 PUGET SOUND AND OKONAGAN. 



for winter food. They keep a large quantity of it on hand, and it 

 constitutes almost their only food. Their salmon-fishery was on the 

 opposite side of the river. Some of the party bought a number of 

 salmon, the smallest of which weighed nearly forty pounds. These 

 Indians had many good horses, which they had no inclination to sell. 



About two miles above the Indian village, they unexpectedly found 

 that they were obliged to cross the Columbia. The balsas were, 

 therefore, put in requisition, and a raft was constructed, on which, 

 with the assistance of a canoe obtained from the Indians, they suc- 

 ceeded in getting all their baggage safely deposited on the other side, 

 whither the horses were also brought. 



In lighting their fires they ignited the grass on the prairie, and pro- 

 duced quite a conflagration, which for a time threatened their camp, 

 but they succeeded in extinguishing it. Lieutenant Johnson now en- 

 gaged an Indian to show them the road to Okonagan, for which they 

 intended to set out at an early hour. 



Their course now lay along the Columbia, and, towards the latter 

 part of the day, on the high prairie-land, which was somewhat sandy, 

 and seemed likely to be unprofitable for any purpose, except sheep- 

 pasture. The guides were quite averse to entering on the high prairie, 

 alleging that it was destitute of water. 



Lieutenant Johnson, however, determined to pass on, after filling the 

 water-bags. Ascending two thousand feet, they reached the high plain, 

 where all were much delighted with the magnificent and extensive 

 view. The whole sweep of the prairie burst upon them, uninterrupted 

 by any shrub, but covered by a long grass, clothing the gentle inclina- 

 tions as well as the hollows. The view was desolate, nothing appear- 

 ing to relieve the eye, but the very distant dark-blue mountains to the 

 northward and eastward, which pointed out the course of the Columbia, 

 or the snow-capped tops of Mount Rainier and the ranges they had 

 left. 



Over this prairie they had no track to guide them, but proceeded 

 on a course north-by-east, leaving a remarkable peak, to which the 

 name of Mount St. Pierre was given, to the east of their route. After 

 travelling three miles, they encamped, and were enabled to cook their 

 dinner with a hawk's nest and a few bushes growing out of a rock. 

 The Indians indulged themselves in a feast on the squab hawks : these 

 birds, from the quantities of down on their legs, have a droll appear- 

 ance. 



This plain — for so it must be called — was found tolerably level, and, 

 although it is covered with grass, yet there is but a slight tint of green 



