THE BOTANY OF THE ROUTE. 
17 
and rich luxuriance of vegetation is more striking as we pass close along the banks, and at 
every bend are new scenes of rural beauty as pleasing because uncommon in a new and wild 
country. For ten or twelve miles meadows, covered even now with fine green grass, occur 
alternately on either side, Avith intervening points of higher land covered Avith trees. Above 
the limits of tide-Avater is a change in the vegetation and surface, the upper valley being com¬ 
posed chiefly of the richest prairies, surrounded by the usual dense forests.” 
On the 18th of July following I Avent Avith a party to explore a route through this valley to 
the sound. “Very feAV of the Indians knew anything of the trail, as it had not been used for 
twenty years, or since the Avhole tribe of Willopahs inhabiting the valley Avere exterminated 
by smallpox. Reaching the first prairie, at the head of tide-water, Ave loaded a pack-horse 
Avith our provisions and blankets, and, each equipped Avith axe or gun, started on our pedes¬ 
trian adventure. The morning was delightful; the prairie covered with grass full three feet 
high and adorned by a great variety of floAvers. It yet scarcely shoAved any effects of the dry 
season Avhich Avas just commencing. Ten of these prairies, varying from a quarter of a mile to 
a mile in extent, occur in this valley; their soil excellent and surface generally level, though 
sometimes undulating, and making the most beautiful of farms with scarcely any labor. The 
rest of the valley is also excellent in soil, but covered with trees, and along the river bank 
sometimes overflowed in winter.” 
Crossing the Coast range (to be hereafter more fully described in the account of the forests) 
we soon struck prairies on the upper Chehalis river. Here the gravelly soil characterizing the 
Avhole valley betAveen the Coast and Cascade ranges, together Avith a drier climate, had pro¬ 
duced much more of the effects of the dry season than in the Willopah valley, and the grass, 
naturally shorter, was quite broAvn, while a very distinct group of flowers, still blooming in 
abundance, made it seem as if Ave had in the distance of a feAV miles reached an entirely neAv 
country. I recognized at once the characteristic plants of the dry prairie near Vancouver and 
along the Cathlapoot’l river, Avhere the preceding summer I noted, in July, that “Ave 
passed through, in the distance of fifty miles, seven prairies from one to four miles in Avidth, 
generally Avith abundant grass, rich soil, and forming a charming contrast to the almost impene¬ 
trable forests.” 
We rested a day at “Boisfort prairie,” so called by a Canadian settler, the name being 
a French translation of the Indian name of the oak, which first appears here in going eastward. 
“It is one of the most beautiful of the little prairies Ave meet, like oases, in this Avilderness 
of forest. Oval in form, about tAvo and a half miles long by one in width, its surface gently 
undulating in long, terraced slopes. Near its centre stands a remarkable mound, conical and 
about fifty feet high, probably formed by the action of water, though looking very much as 
if built purposely by ancient inhabitants for a citadel. 
“The fine fields of grain just ripe, numerous cattle, and comfortable houses, Avith all the 
pleasant appliances of rural life, gave the place the air of an old settlement, although the 
twelve familes there had been settled less than a year.” 
At short intervals, all along the upper Chehalis, and beyond it to Steilaooom, Ave passed 
through similar fine prairies, Avhich occupy a large portion of this valley between the Coast 
and Cascade ranges. 
The “Nisqually plains,” about thirty square miles in extent, lie in irregularly oval form 
betAveen Puget Sound and the Cascade range, Avith the Nisqually river on the south and the 
Puyallup north of them. Their surface is smooth and level, rising in successive terraces from 
3 t 
