176 
TOPOGRAPHY OF ROUTE FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE COLUMBIA. 
From the Spokane to where the Peluse joins the Snake river in a direct course across the 
plain is about ninety miles southwest, during which the route crosses numerous small streams, 
and through such bleak country as has been shortly noticed ; thence about fifty miles southwest 
to Fort Wallah-Wallah, some ten miles below the confluence of the Great forks of the Columbia, 
and another important stage of our journey has been accomplished. It should be stated here, 
that the longest march without water on the nearest route to Wallah-Wallah was twenty-seven 
miles; but by taking a longer route, water can be had by much shorter marches. 
The Columbia river from Wallah-Wallah down, its canons, rapids, The Dalles, Cascades, &c., 
are too well known to require much notice here; they have long since received the polished touch 
of one of the most eminent and favorite of living writers, and, in connexion with the northern 
Cascade mountains, have just been thoroughly handled by the gentlemen of the western division. 
It will be sufficient to observe that the prairies south of the Columbia, over which the odometer 
survey was carried, are extremely hilly and sandy, with some artemisia, which, however, is not 
seen beyond the Umatilla ; an occasional house being a cheering sign that our labors were 
drawing to a close. From this route the majestic outlines of the principal peaks of the Cascade 
range, north and south, are almost constantly in view, from incredible distances, glistening 
through the pure air in their mantles of eternal snow. Near the Cascades, as the principal 
rapids of the Columbia are called, the odometer gave out , as well as some of the animals, and 
the winter was too far advanced to renew the attempt to carry the survey to Puget sound. 
However, it is satisfactory to know that the survey, as it was first plotted, independent of cor¬ 
rection by astronomical points, but connected by those of Captain Wilkes and Professor Nicollet, 
was only ten miles in error ; being in excess, in a line of nearly two thousand miles, an error of 
only one in two hundred, while in latitude there was no error whatever.* 
Going down the Columbia, the reason of the Cascade mountains being so named becomes 
apparent from the steep sides of that tremendous chasm through which the gathered waters seek 
the ocean. Foremost among the wonders that attract the admiring gaze of travellers are the 
numerous and beautiful little falls which pour from every crevice, at every height, and frequently 
from the very mountain top. The grand proportions of the mountains and the noble river deceive 
the eye with respect to distance, and surprise ensues that there should be heard no “ sound of fall¬ 
ing waters.” As many as twelve of these fairy cascades can be counted within view in a single 
reach of the river. Some, descending from hanging rocks, are dissolved in spray less than 
half way down the fall; others steal down the crooked crannies of the mountain, never actually 
leaving their steep channels, in which they glisten like a snow-wreath ; and not a few seem as 
though they were frozen on the mountain side, so regular and imperceptible is the motion of the 
water, and a telescope is necessary to prove that they really are what they barely seem to be. 
Most of them are but tiny threads of foam; but on turning a projecting and sheltering cliff, there 
is found another little beauty in a nook adorned by groups of evergreens, where the water pours 
over a broader ledge, and spreads into a veil such as Undine might have worn : gently waving 
with the undulations of the air, every drop yet appears so distinctly to the eye that we pause, 
though vainly, to hear it plashing on the rocks beneath. 
From the Cascades down the Columbia in a steamer, and up the Cowlitz, it may be, in the 
mail canoe; finding little towns on the banks, and sleeping in houses every night, so that we 
believe we are getting into settlements once more. It is scarely necessary to make more than a 
few closing remarks on a Territory where already nearly all the appliances of industry are 
actively at work amid a quickly-growing population, and whose productions begin to vie with 
those of any country in the temperate zone. It has no doubt been told in many different ways 
that the country west of the Cascade range and north of the Columbia, particularly around Puget 
sound, abounds in all the resources that contribute to the growth of States; that its dense pine 
* Subsequently, by comparison with Captain Wilkes’s revised longitude of Wallah-Wallah, tbe odometer survey was found to be 
4' in excess, or about three statute miles. 
