218 
TOPOGRAPHICAL REPORT ON WESTERN DIVISION. 
hundred yards in width, and lias no valley. The high basaltic terraced range of hills which 
has been following the Wallah-Wallah for some distance above its mouth, turns down the 
Columbia at this point, and follows it to the Dalles in an almost uninterrupted chain. This 
chain varies in height, and is only broken for a short distance between the Umatilla and Hokespam. 
A similar terraced chain commences in an abrupt bluff on the northern bank, two miles above 
Wallah-Wallah, and continues uninterruptedly to the Umatilla, opposite the mouth of which 
it suddenly terminates in an abrupt bluff From this bluff a high chain runs off from the river 
range to the northeast. The river chain soon commences again on this side of the river, and 
then is continuous to the Dalles, and increases in altitude in that direction, and runs bluff up to 
the river throughout. There is no timber along the Columbia, or on its branches, except a few 
clumps of willow scrub, and but little grass. The basalt ceases about a mile above the Umatilla, 
and commences again one and a half mile above the mouth of the Hokespam, below which the 
river-chain is high and continuous. The trail finds its way over high terraces, the side-slopes of 
the river ranges, and over the low plateaus, frequently crossing over rocky spurs running down to 
the water’s edge. Above the Umatilla, and between the Wanwawwie and the Dalles, it leaves 
the river altogether, and passes back over the hills on the left to avoid the rocky and more diffi¬ 
cult places along the river. This high table-land above the Umatilla is very sandy and barren, 
and produces nothing but stunted wild sage bushes. The sand is light and drifting. Between 
this river and the Hokespam the country rises gradually back ; a light line of sand-hills runs 
parallel to the river about a mile back, and this country is very sterile, sandy, and barren. The 
Umatilla is fifty feet wide and two feet deep, bottom sandy, and ford good. The Hokespam is 
twenty-five feet wide and eighteen inches deep, with a stony bottom. The Mahhah is sixty feet 
wide, two and a half feet deep, gravelly bottom, and fine, good crossing. The Wanwawwie is 
not fordable; it is thirty yards wide, and very rough and rapid. The Hokespam has a very 
narrow valley. -Between the Wanwawwie and the Dalles, the trail passes back from the river 
and crosses two ranges—one between the Wanwawwie and the Waiyurn, and the second 
between this stream and the Columbia at the Dalles. The trail crosses the Waiyum nine and 
a half miles from the Dalles ; the river then runs towards the Columbia for one mile, and then 
turns down parallel to it and empties above Fort Dalles. It receives a branch from the south¬ 
east, a few miles above Fort Dalles. This country is high, rolling table-land, covered with 
good bunch-grass. At the Dalles, die Columbia makes a bend like a horse-shoe towards the 
south, and the river runs through a basaltic trough. Walls of trough about twenty feet high; 
river 200 yards wide; rapid current, but not rough. The river chain on the northern side 
continues westward, without following this bend in the river; thus leaving a few miles of com¬ 
paratively level country, but very rough and broken, and rocky. There is a low valley, lour 
miles long and one mile wide, along this bend on the southern side, but it overflows a.t high 
water. Besides the Waiyum, a second small stream enters the Columbia at the bend, from the 
southwest. A third comes into it from the northern side. The distance from the Dalles to Fort 
Vancouver was made by water. The river is generally rapid. At the Cascades it is loo rocky, 
rough and rapid to be navigated ; a short portage, therefore, is necessary, and a railroad has been 
constructed for the purpose on the northern bank. The mountains between the Dalles and the 
Cascades are timbered, in some places heavily so, and become higher and rougher. Below the 
Cascades the river-range falls off into low spurs and hills, which terminate a short distance below 
Cape Horn. The country thence is level on both sides of the river to Vancouver, and is heavily 
timbered. The highest mountains along the river are at the Cascades, and at the mouths of the 
White Salmon and Ivlikatat rivers. These points, therefore, are the points on the Columbia 
from which spring the main Cascade ranges, which run to the north up to Mount St. Helens 
and Mount Adams, and centre in Mount Rainier. Thence one main chain connects with Mount 
Baker, and another runs off'to the northeast. These principal chains throw out innumerable spurs ; 
the western one filling up with high mountain table-land, and low hilly ranges most of the country 
