JOURNAL, 
CHAP, xjr. n 
Tuesday 15th. This day was fine, clear and plea- 
sant ; and we continued here until the afternoon to 
dry our baggage that had been wet yesterday. The 
natives have great quantities of fish deposited on this 
island.* At 3 o'clock P. M. we got all our effects on 
board and proceeded on. Passed down a beautiful 
part of the liver ; and killed some geese and ducks. 
This river in general is very handsome, except at 
the rapids, where it is risking both lire and property 
to pass ; and even these rapids, when the bare view 
or prospect is considered distinct from the advantages 
of navigation, may add to its beauty, by iiUerposing 
variety and scenes of romap.iick grandeur where 
there is so much uniformity in the appearance of the 
country. We w^ent 18 miles this evening and halted 
at an old Indian camp on the north side, where we 
had great difficulty in procuring wood to cOok with, 
as none at all grows in this part of the country. 
Wecbiesday \6th. We had a fine morning and em- 
barked early; proceeded on about 3 miles, v/hen one 
of our canoes run upon some rocks in a rapid, but by 
* Immense numbers of ^ifilmon must ascend the western 
rivers every summer from the Pacific, and constitute a chief 
article in the food of the natives. Mr. IVrKeuzie informs \in 
that in the river, by which he arrived at tlie ocean, where it 
empties itself four or five hundred miles northwest of the 
mouth of the Columbia, the salmon are so abundant, tliat 
the natives have a constant and plentiful supply of that ex- 
cellent fish. He also on his return states, under the date 
of the 6vh and fth of August^ that the salmon in the waters 
of the Columbia were driving' up the current in such larg^e 
shoals, that the water seemed to be covered with the lins 
of tliem. 
N 2 
