10 
GRAND COULEE AND ITS VICINITY. 
feet we arrived upon a level which commands a fine view of the coulee; it was about ten miles 
wide at the north entrance, and gradually widened until it passed out of sight; its walls were 
about 800 feet high, and one solid mass of rock basalt, cemented together by lava or some more 
fusible rock. The trail had a gradual fall for about six miles, which gives a fair index of the 
ground included between the walls. 
“This coulee was twenty miles in length; its walls then passed out of sight, to the west. 
“The soil was generally sand, except near the walls, where it was made up of disintegrated 
rock. 
“The line of march the succeeding day was very rocky for six miles, when we entered the 
second coulee in size. This coulee has the general appearance of the former. Travelling through 
this, we again entered the Hudson’s Bay trail, near a high, rocky mound. To remove any doubt 
that may remain on the minds of others in regard to the Grand Coulee, which is laid down on 
the maps about ninety miles in length, I will state I obtained the best guide in the country. He 
was born in this country, and has travelled the route for the last fifteen years. I questioned 
him very closely in regard to the route travelled by Lieutenant Johnson in 1841. The coulee 
through which he travelled is not known as the Grande Coulee among the old residents. 
“After travelling a few miles, I crowed this stream and passed a fine lake about six miles in 
length and one in width; it was fringed with alder bushes, and filled with wild fowl, duck, 
geese, and white swan. Along the eastern bank of this lake I again commanded a view of the 
range along the western bank of the Columbia, as far north as Pisquouse river. This view, taken 
in connexion with the information I have received from my guide, leads me to believe that the 
country bounded on the east by my line of march, north and west by the Columbia, on the south 
by a line passing through the mouth of the Pisquouse river, and the southern extremity of the 
second coulee previously spoken of, is filled with coulees running in every direction, and ranging 
from-one to fifteen miles in length.” 
