300 
VOYAGE IN A CANOE FROM FORT OWEN TO VANCOUVER. 
Puget sound. Herbert gives an account, taken from Richardson’s Fauna Boreali Americana, of 
six different kinds of salmon known in the Oregon waters. The European fish are said to return 
to the sea after spawning; there they remain a year or two, until they become sufficiently restored, 
before they reascend the rivers to spawn again. The Columbia river salmon weigh from six to 
forty pounds ; they are in excellent condition until they reach Wallah-Wallah, after which they 
are much poorer, both in flesh and flavor. The Indians along the river collect, during the 
summer and full, these fish, which they want for winter use; these are split open and the bones 
taken out, leaving the skin with a layer of meat upon it, which when dry is about a third of an 
inch thick. These are scarified in various directions, and then hung for a short time in the smoke 
of a fire. They are then hung on poles or the branches of trees, where they are freely exposed 
to the wind. In a month they become perfectly dry, and are then housed in small store-houses, 
built much in the shape of the hay barracks of the eastern States, the floor upon which they are 
laid being, for security against dogs and wolves, raised about eight or ten feet above the ground 
boards; bark and matting are placed over them to secure them from rain, also from the depreda¬ 
tions of the small fish crow (Corvus ossifragus.) Salmon thus dried forms the principal food of 
the natives during the winter. There is no venison, and scarcely any other game, in the vicinity 
of Fort Colville. The fur trade with the inhabitants in its immediate neighborhood amounts to 
but little. Almost all of the trade of this kind carried on by this trading-post is through the 
smaller forts it supplies in the Flathead and Kootenaie country, or among the tribes farther up 
the main Columbia. An Indian gave me a list of the various tribes and bands of Indians in the 
neighborhood of Fort Colville, and west of the Rocky mountains, who speak dialects and varia¬ 
tions of the same language. These dialects are still so similar as to be easily understood by any 
of the Indians composing the bands. 
Selish, (Flatheads,) T-com-oe-loops. 
Spokane, (Spokanes,) Ne-com-ap-oe-lox. 
Kalispelm, (Pend d’Oreilles,) Sar-lit-hu, near Okinakane. 
Squeer-yer-pe, (Colville Indians,) Squaw-a-tosh. 
Sin-poil-er-hu, (Sinpoils,) Sklarkum. 
Wagon and railroad routes run through the Bitter Root and Coeur d’Alene mountains. The 
result of my observations, together with the information I obtained from the Rev. Fathers 
Hoecken and Joset, and from others, is as follows: 
The valley of the St. Mary’s river, from the junction of the Hell Gate and Bitter Root rivers 
to the Horse Plain, at the mouth of the Flathead or Pend d’Oreille river, will admit of a railroad 
line of easy grade; but the numerous very short curves obliging frequent crossings by strong 
bridges, the great length of the route if the river is followed, the steep banks and the high- 
raised work necessary to prevent the encroachments of the freshets, (which in many places 
rise from twenty to thirty feet above the common level,) will all render this part of the road 
exceedingly expensive. On the other hand, the character of the rocks is such that, where side 
and deep cuts are required, quarrying and blasting can be readily done. From the Horse Plain 
to the Cabinet there is a good, easy, natural grade on the right bank, with fewer curves and 
greater width of valley than above. There are, of course, a few obstacles, one of which is the 
“Fallen Mountain;” but the general aspect of this part of the route is good. At the Cabinet (a 
point about twenty miles above Lake Pend d’Oreille) the river is compressed between walls of 
solid rock about one hundred feet high. Its width here could readily be spanned by a single 
arch, and the road be made to take the left bank of the river. After reaching Lake Kalispelm, 
it could readily skirt the eastern and southern shore until it reached a southern prolongation of 
the lake, which extends about twenty-five miles in the direction of the Coeur d’Alene mission, and 
from that fact is called the Coeur d’Alene bay. From the upper end of this bay to the Coeur 
d’Alene lake there is a very gentle rise and a low divide, so low that it might readily be passed 
over by a traveller without notice. From the Coeur d’Alene lake to the valley of the Spokane 
