ITINERARY OF ROUTE FROM HELL GATE TO COEUR D’ALENE MISSION. 367 
and let it fall, fortunately without injury to any one. The Indians have quite a village of lodges 
near the mission, and among them half a dozen log huts. 
October 13.—The Coeur d’Alenes have already, under the influence and example of their 
priest, made a fair commencement in agriculture, and will, with timely encouragement from 
our government, live entirely by cultivation, for which their country is so well adapted. They 
are well contented, and it is pleasing to observe habits of industry growing upon them. In the 
barn we saw their operation of threshing. Four boys rode as many mules abreast around 
in circle, and they were followed by two girls with flails, who were perfectly at home in the 
business. I observed an Indian woman milking, and was surprised to see her use both hands, 
something rarely seen among the Indians. We afterwards visited the field. A large lire was 
burning, and around it sat Indians roasting potatoes at pleasure. There appeared to be great 
scarcity of proper implements; and in digging potatoes I noticed that many had nothing better 
than sharpened sticks. 
October 14.—Determined to remain here until to-morrow. A Nez Perce, Frank, who with 
two men arrived yesterday from Wallah-Wallah in three days, and who stopped to exchange 
horses for flour, says thirty wagons have crossed the military road from Wallah-Wallah to 
Nisqually. The Coeur d’Alenes, Pend d’Oreilles, Spokanes, and Nez Perces, meet together to 
fish and hunt. They have an ingenious way of hunting the deer, which is worth relating. A 
large circle is enclosed, and upon the trees around its circumference are attached pieces of cloth. 
Then the hunters enter the area and start up the deer. The deer are afraid to pass the cloth, 
and thus kept within the circle, are easily killed. Last year the Pend d’Oreilles, in one hunt, 
killed eight hundred; the Coeur d’Alenes more than four hundred. It is said that the Coeur 
d’Alenes of St. Joseph river have finer lands and larger prairies than those of this mission. 
The distance from here to Wallah-Wallah is six days, to Colville four days, and four days 
to the Pend d’Oreille mission. 
On the return of the Indians from the field, Governor Stevens addressed them in kind and 
encouraging terms. 
October 15.—We started at eight o’clock, after having given brother Charles as many lariet 
ropes for raising the timbers of the church as we could spare. We marched through an exten¬ 
sive prairie bottom four miles in length; leaving the river to the left, we took a course north 
of west through a wooded, broken country, somewhat obstructed by fallen timber. We camped 
on a beautiful prairie, with good grass, and here we found nearly one hundred Spokanes, with 
some three hundred horses, on their way to the hunt. We had already met some forty Indians, 
Coeur d’Alenes, Nez Perces, and Spokanes, on the road. In the evening the Spokanes held 
religious (Protestant) services, and we joined them to witness their ceremonies. The majority 
of the Indians were on their way to meet the Flatheads and other tribes to hunt buffalo on 
the waters of the Missouri. This is a very strong evidence that the snows will present no 
insurmountable barrier to communication across the mountains in winter. Many of them make 
a distance of six hundred miles in midwinter, recrossing the mountains in January, their horses 
laden with robes and meat, to their homes on the waters of the Columbia. Distance nineteen 
miles. 
October 16.—We started at eight o’clock. The road for the first half of the way through an 
open, wooded prairie. Then we came into the Coeur d'Alene prairie, a beautiful tract of land 
containing about six hundred square miles. Trap-rock, projecting above the surface of the 
ground in spurs, is plentiful as we enter this prairie. We met on the way a half-breed, named 
Francis Far!ay, on his way to St. Mary’s with his family. He lives near Colville, just beyond 
the ferry. They were dressed, and had an air of general respectability. 
Soon after leaving camp the Coeur d’Alene lake came in view to the south of us, and eleven 
miles from camp we struck it near its western extremity. It is a beautiful sheet of water, sur¬ 
rounded by picturesque hills mostly covered with wood. Its shape is irregular, unlike that 
