630 
LETTER OF A. W. TINKHAM. 
to the Columbia, is wide, open, and devoid of timber, except in the bottom-lands of the river, and 
even there the trees in any considerable quantity are not found until one passes up the river 
some forty miles from its mouth, about seventeen miles above Wallah-Wallah. Scattered along 
the banks of the river, in their winter lodges, are small encampments of the Wallah-Wallah and 
Yakima Indians, subsisting on their summer gatherings of dried salmon, potatoes, dried roots, 
berries, and occasionally grain; and many of them are wealthy in their herds of horses and cattle. 
These Indians I ever found hospitable and kind, and in a more full report I shall have occasion 
to notice more particularly their acts of attention. On the 11th of January I reached the Yakima 
Catholic mission, under the care of the Rev. Father Poudery, located in the midst of a division 
of the Yakima tribe, and just above the Atahnam tributary of the river. Farther than this my 
Wallah-Wallah guides were unwilling to proceed, and leaving them here, I obtained, with some 
little delay, the services of two Yakima Indians. The Indians, secure in their lodges, were 
unwilling to exchange their shelter for a cold and laborious passage of the mountains, and I am 
particularly indebted to Father Poudery for his aid in securing the two who accompanied me, and 
who throughout have proved faithful and serviceable. 
Passing over the intermediate portion of the route, on the 17th of January I arrived within 
three or four miles of the Kle-al-um lake, the source of one of the principal forks of the Yakima 
liver. To this point I had travelled without difficulty with horses, and here was to commence 
the most laborious part of the exploration. The snow was now about two feet deep, and the 
weather for several days had been intensely cold—not more cold than is experienced in all our 
northern Atlantic States at this season; but severe for continuous exposure, day and night, with¬ 
out other than the slight protection I found it convenient to bring with me. Packing on snow- 
shoes had previously taught me to dispense with everything not absolutely essential to one’s 
sustenance and health; and to make my camp equipage as light as possible I had thrown aside 
my tent. 
No grass could be obtained near here, and the few Indians residing in the vicinity of the lake 
were without animals ; but thirty miles lower down on the river the snow was very light—not 
over three to four inches deep; the grass was good and exposed, and the Indian horses were in 
good condition. Extending still farther down, and reaching the Wallah-Wallah, the horses in 
thousands are ranging throughout the borders of the valley, with abundant grass, and rarely with 
any trouble from the snow. 
The railroad facilities had continued good from the entrance into the valley of the Yakima, the 
valley being generally several miles wide, with hills rising gradually on either side of the river, 
and rarely closing in upon its banks. The valley was now narrow; the firs and pines had inter¬ 
mixed and mingled with the cotton-wood of the bottoms of the stream, and were soon to become 
the exclusive growth. Here, too, commences the wooded region extending to the shores of the 
Pacific, and where exhaustless stores of firs and cedars will not only furnish the building material 
for a railroad, but will, from its resources, with suitable means of transportation, supply the wants 
of the country east of it, lacking in timber and fuel. 
Sending back my horses in the care of an Indian, to be returned to Wallah-Wallah, the bal¬ 
ance of the exploration was conducted on foot, and with snow-shoes when necessary. To aid in 
packing, and also from the necessity of procuring an additional guide, I here increased my Indians 
to five in number. From them I obtained dried salmon, which they have in abundance, and a 
variety of dried roots. Their potatoes are not generally disturbed in the colder portions of 
winter. 
Yakima river finds its source mainly in three lakes, from four to ten miles long, and lying in a 
line nearly east and west—Kle-al-um, Ka-ches, and Kitch-e-lus lakes, the two more distant being 
some twenty-five to thirty miles apart. Each of these lakes furnishes its tributary to the main 
stream, up the valley of which the railroad encounters iittle of serious obstacle until on the bor¬ 
ders of Kitch-e-lus lake, the most westerly of the three. On the edge of this lake I encamped 
