JOURNAL. 
Tuesday \2>lh We had a fine iriorning ^^vith white 
frost. Having- collected our horses we found we had 
-60 and all pretty good except 4, which were studs 
^nd had sore hacks. At noon v/e proceeded down 
the branch, which has a good deal of cotton wocxl, 
cribingthe situation of his party,''* sittinr^ round a blazing fire'' 
the first evening" of the dH5', which they had begun to nscer.d 
these mountains on their l eturn, and vvhicli was that (>f th*-! 
26th of July; he observes *''even at this place, which is 
only, as it were, the first step towards gaining the siimniitof 
the mountains, the climate-was very sensibly changed. 1 fie 
.nir that fanned the village which \vs left at noon, was mild 
and cheering; the grass was verdant, and the wiid fruits 
pipe arouiui it. But here tlie ^now was not yet dissolved, 
the ground was still bound by the frost, the herbage had 
scarce beg\m to spring, and the crowberry bushes ere just 
beginning to blossom." This range of lofty *-nountains pre- 
vents the Tgcoutche or Columbia river frora finding a direct 
course to the ocean, and forces it in a direction somewhat 
«ast of south, to traverse by various windings that large trac t 
of country, until it arrives near the 46th degree of hitityd'*, 
when it turns to the west, and at lengtli finds its ^I'ay to thd 
Ocean through the Columbia valley. 
From the information gained by the late expedition, by 
M'Kenzie's voyage, the discoveries of Captain Gooke and 
others, it appears there are great quantities of timber, 
chiefly of the pine or fir kind, between the shore of the Pa- 
cific and the chain of mountains wliich run near it ; but be - 
tw'een these and the Rocky Moimtains, especially south of 
M'Kenzie's rout, a great part is open prairie or plains al- 
most totally v/ithout timber. Mr M'Kenzie says of the in- 
formation of the chief, v. ho delineated for him a sketeli (;f 
the river and country on apiece of bark, ".As far as his know- 
ledge of the river extended, the country on either side was 
level, in many places without wood, aTid abounding in red 
deei% and some of a small fallow kind." 
According to the verbal relation of Mr Gass, the land on 
the Columbia is generally of a better quality than on the 
Missouri ; and where a greater number of roots grov/, sucU 
as tke natives subsit on. The Missouri in its Oi'eneral course 
is deeper, more crooked and rapid than the Columbia ; but 
i\i<t latter has more rapids or cataracts ; and its water is 
^lear. 
