flocked from all directions to see them. The scantiness of their fare had brought them to the stage of eating dog-meat, which they say excited the ridicule of the natives. The Indians gave them to understand that the southern branch was navigable up about sixty miles; that not far from its mouth it received a branch from the south, and at two days' march up a larger branch called Pawnashte, on which a chief resided who had more horses than he could count.

The first of these must be the Asotin Creek, unless indeed they referred to the Grande Ronde, which is the first large stream, but is considerable distance from the junction. The Pawnashte must have been the Salmon, the largest tributary of the Snake. The Snake at the point of the camp of the explorers was discovered to be about three hundred yards wide. The party noticed the greenish blue color of the Snake, while the Kooskooskie was as clear as crystal. The Indians at this point are described as of the Chopunnish or Pierced-Nose nations, the latter of those names translated by the French voyageurs into the present Nez Perce. According to the observations of the party, the men were in person stout, portly, well-looking men; the women small, with good features and generally handsome. The chief article of dress of the men was a "buffalo or elk-skin robe decorated with beads, sea-shells, chiefly mother-of-pearl, attached to an otter-skin collar and hung in the hair, which falls in front in two queues; feathers, paints of different kinds, principally white, green, and light blue, all of which they find in their own country. The dress of the women is more simple, consisting of a long skirt of argalia or ibex-skin, reaching down to the ankles without a girdle; to this are tied little pieces of brass and shells and other small articles." Further on the journal states again: "The Chopunnish have few amusements, for their life is painful and laborious; and all their exertions are necessary to earn even their precarious subsistence. During the summer and autumn they are busily occupied in fishing for salmon and collecting their winter store of roots. In the winter they hunt the deer on snow-shoes over the plains, and towards spring cross the mountains to the Missouri for the purpose of trafficking for buffalo robes." It may be remarked here parenthetically that there is every indication that buffalo formerly inhabited the Snake and Columbia plains. In fact, buffalo bones have been found. in recent years in street excavations at Spokane. What cataclysm may have led to their extermination is hidden in obscurity. But at the first coming of the whites it was discovered that one of the regular occupations of the natives was crossing the Rocky Mountains to hunt or trade for buffalo.

Soon after resuming the journey on October 11, the explorers noted with curiosity one of the vapor baths common among those Indians, which they say differed from those on the frontiers of the United States or in the Rocky Mountains. The bath-house was a hollow square six or eight feet deep, formed in the river bank by damming up with mud the other three sides and covering the whole completely except an aperture about two feet wide at the top. The bathers descended through that hole, taking with them a jug of water and a number of hot rocks. They would throw the water on the rocks until it steamed and in that steam they would sit until they had perspired sufficiently, and then they would plunge into cold water. This species of entertainment seems to have been very sociable, for one seldom bathed alone. It was considered a great affront to decline an invitation to join a bathing party.

The explorers seem to have had a very calm and uneventful descent of Snake

River. They describe the general lay of the country accurately, noting that beyond the steep ascent of 200 feet (it is in reality a great deal more in all the upper part of this portion of Snake River) the country becomes an open, level, and fertile plain, entirely destitute of timber. They note all the rapids with sufficient particularity to enable anyone thoroughly familiar with the river to identify most of them. They make special observation of the long series of rapids commonly known now as the Riparia and Texas Rapids, and below these observe a large creek on the left which they denominate as Kimooenim Creek. This is rather odd, for that had already been noted as the native name of the main river. A few miles further down they pass through a bad rapid but twenty-five yards wide. Of course, it must be remembered that the time was October and the river was about at its lowest. This was the narrow crack of the Palouse Rapids, which, however, is not so narrow as they estimated, even at low water. At the end of this rapid they discovered a large river on the right, to which they gave the name of Drewyer, one of their party, their mighty hunter in fact. This was a many-named stream, for it was later the Pavion, the Pavillion, and at the last the present Palouse, the equivalent, we are told again by Thomas Beall, for gooseberry. The principal rapids below the entrance of the Palouse are known at present as Fishhook, Long's Crossing, Pine Tree, the Potato Patch, and Five Mile. Five Mile looked so bad to them that they unloaded the canoes and made portage of three-quarters of a mile. At a distance below this, which they estimated as seven miles, they reached that interesting place where the great northern and southern branches of the Big River unite. They were then at the location of the present Village of Burbank. Many interesting events and observations are chronicled of their stay at that point. Soon after their arrival a regular procession of 200 Indians from a camp a short distance up the Columbia came to visit them, timing their approach with the music of drums, accompanied with the voice. There seems to have followed a regular love-feast, both parties taking whiffs of the friendly pipe and expressing as best they could their common joy at the meeting. Then came a distribution of presents and a mutual pledging of good will. The captains measured the rivers, finding the Columbia 960 yards wide and the Snake 575. From their point of observation across the continued plain they noted how it rose into the heights on the farther side of the river. They had already taken into account the far distant mountains to the south, our own Blue Mountains, which they thought about sixty miles distant, just about the right estimate. It is to be hoped that it was one of the perfect days not infrequent in October and that the azure hues of those mountains which we love today were before them in all their rich, soft splendor. They noted in the clear water of the river the incredible number of salmon. The Indians gave them to understand that frequently in the absence of other fuel they burned the fish that, having been thrown upon the bank, became so dry as to make excellent fuel. These Indians were of a tribe known as Sokulks. According to the description they were hardly so good-looking a people as the Chopunnish, but were of mild and peaceable disposition and seemed to live in a state of comparative happiness. The men, like those on the Kimooenim, were said to content themselves with a single wife. The explorers noted that the men shared with their mates the labor of procuring subsistence more than is usual among savages. They were also very kind to the aged and infirm. Nor were they inclined to beggary. All things considered, these

Sokulks at the junction of the big rivers were worthy of much esteem. Captain Clark made a journey up the Columbia, in the course of which he made sundry interesting observations on the Indian manner of preparing salmon for preservation, as well as for present use. At one point he entered one of the mat houses. He was immediately provided with a mat on which to sit and his hosts proceeded at once to cook a salmon for his repast. This they did by heating stones, and then, bringing in the fish in a bucket of water, they dropped in the hot stones in succession till the water boiled. After sufficiently boiling the salmon, they placed it before the captain. He found it excellent. He noticed that many of these Indians were blind in one or both eyes and had lost part of their teeth. The first of these unfortunate conditions he attributed to the glare of the water on their unshaded eyes, and the second to their habit of eating roots without cleansing them from the sandy soil in which they grew. It would appear from the topography of the journal that Captain Clark went a short distance above the present site of Kennewick, for he was near the mouth of a large stream flowing from the west, which the Indians called the Tapteal, but which later became known as the Yakima, also a native name. While on land during this trip, the party got grouse (or what we now call prairie chickens) and ducks, and also a "prairie cock, about the size of a small turkey." This was evidently a sage hen. It is recorded that they saw none of that bird except on the Columbia. While camped at the junction of the rivers, the men were busily engaged in mending their clothes and travelling outfits and arms, and otherwise preparing for the next stage of the journey. One very interesting feature of the stay here was the fact that one of the chiefs with one of the Chimnapum, a tribe further west, provided the party with a map of the Columbia and the nations on its banks. This was drawn on a robe with a piece of coal and afterwards transferred by some one of the explorers to a piece of paper. They preserved it as a valuable specimen of Indian delineation.

On October 18, the party packed up and pushing off into the majestic river, proceeded downward toward the highlands, evidently what we call the Wallula Gateway. In the general journal, called the Edition of 1814, in which the contributions of all the party are merged, there seems to be some confusion as to the mouth of the Walla Walla River. The record mentions an island near the right shore fourteen and one-half miles from the mouth of Lewis' River and a mile and a half beyond that of small brook under a high hill on the left, "seeming to run its whole course through the high country." This evidently must be the Walla Walla River, though it can hardly be called a "small brook," even in the low season, and it flows quite distinctly in a valley, though the highlands begin immediately below. They also say: "At this place, too, we observed a mountain to the southwest, the form of which is conical, and its top covered with snow." This is obviously incorrect, for Mount Hood, which is the only snow mountain to the southwest visible anywhere near that place, cannot be seen from near the mouth of the Walla Walla, except by climbing the highlands. On the next day, October 19, the party was visited by a chief of whom they saw more and tell more on their return. This was Yelleppit. They describe him as a "handsome, well-proportioned man, about five feet, eight inches high and about thirty-five years old, with a bold and dignified countenance." His name is preserved in a station on the

S. P. & S. Railroad, located just about at the place where the party met the chieftain.

After the meeting with Yelleppit, the party once more committed themselves to the downward rushing current of the Columbia, and passed beyond the range of our story. Of the interesting details of their continued journey down the river and the final vision of the ocean, "that ocean, the object of all our labors, the reward of all our anxieties," we cannot speak.

Having spent the winter at Fort Clatsop, about ten miles from the present Astoria and nearly the same distance from the present Seaside, they left Fort Clatsop for their long return journey, on March 23, 1806. They saw many interesting and important features of the country on the return, which they failed to note in going down. Among these, strange to say, was the entrance of the Willamette, the largest river below the Snake. The return was made as far as the "Long Narrows" (The Dalles) with the canoes, but at that point they procured horses and proceeded thence by land. They passed the "Youmalolam" (Umatilla) and then entering the highlands, were again within the area of "Old Walla Walla County." Reaching the country of the "Wallawollahs," they again came in contact with their old friend, whose name appears in that portion of the journal as Yellept. They found him more of a gentleman than ever. He insisted on his people making generous provision for the needs of the party, and gave them the valuable information that by going up the Wallawollah River and directly east to the junction of the Snake and Kooskooskie they might have a route full of grass and water and game, and much shorter than to follow the banks of Snake River. Accordingly crossing from the north bank of the Columbia, which they had been following, they found themselves on the Wallawollah. They do not now describe it as before as a “small brook," but as a "handsome stream, about fifty yards wide and four and a half feet in depth." They got one curious misapprehension here which was held later by explorers in general in regard to the Multnomah or Willamette. They understood from the Indians that the Willamette ran south of the Blue Mountains and was as large as the Columbia at the mouth of the Wallawollah, which they say was about a mile wide. They infer from the whole appearance, as the Indians seem to explain it, that the sources of the Willamette must approach those of the Missouri and Del Norte. One quaint and curious circumstance is mentioned at this stage of the story, as it has been, in fact, at various times. And that is the extravagant delight which the Indians derived from the violin. They were so fascinated with the sound of the instrument and the dancing which accompanied it that they would come in throngs and sometimes remain up all night. In this particular instance, however, they were so considerate of the white men's need of sleep that they retired at ten o'clock.

On the last day of April, 1806, the party turned their horses' heads eastward up the Wallawollah River across sandy expanses, which, however, they soon discovered to improve in verdure and in groves of trees. Having followed the main stream fourteen miles, they reached "a bold, deep stream, about ten yards wide, which seems navigable for canoes." They found a profusion of trees along the course of this creek and were delighted to see all the evidences of increasing timber. This stream, which they now followed for a number of miles, was evidently the Touchet, and the point where they turned to follow it was at the present Town

of Touchet. Their course was up the creek for about twelve miles to a point where the creek bottom widened into a pleasant country two or three miles in width. This presumably was the fertile region beginning a mile or so east of the present Lamar, and extending thence onward to Prescott and beyond. The party made a day's march of twenty-six miles and camped at a point, which according to the figures of the next day, would have been near the present Bolles Junction. One rather quaint incident appears at this point in the narration, to the effect that when encamped for the night, three young men of the Wollawollahs came up with a steel trap which had inadvertently been left behind. The Indians had come a whole day's journey to restore this. This exhibition of honesty was so gratifying that the narration affirms that: "Of all the Indians whom we have met since leaving the United States, the Wollawollahs were the most hospitable, honest, and sincere."

Resuming the march the next day the explorers noted at a distance of three miles a branch entering the creek from the "southeast mountains, which, though covered with snow, are about twenty-five miles distant, and do not appear high." That branch must have been our Coppei, which joins the main creek at our pleasant little City of Waitsburg. Having proceeded a total distance of fourteen miles from the previous night's camp, the travellers found themselves at a point where the main creek bore to the south toward the mountains from which it came, and where a branch entered it from the northeast. This spot was evidently the site of Dayton, and the branch from the northeast which they now followed was the Patit. The next day they crossed the Kimooenim, which is the same that they had designated the Kimooenim Creek on their descent of Snake River in the fall, being, curiously enough, as already noted, the same name that they had already understood to be the Indian name of Snake River. The stream was evidently the Tucannon. From the Tucannon the course led our adventurers over the high, fertile plains near to the "southwest mountains" to a ravine "where was the source of a small creek, down the hilly and rocky sides of which we proceeded for eight miles to its entrance into Lewis' River, about seven miles and a half above the mouth of the Kooskooskie." This creek was the Asotin and therefore the point where they again reached Snake River was that grand and picturesque place where the attractive town of Asotin is now located.

The explorers having crossed the river were beyond the jurisdiction of this volume, and even of the State of Washington, being within that of Idaho, and hence we cannot follow them further on their return journey. We must content ourselves, in this farewell glance at this first, and in many respects, the most interesting and important of all the early transcontinental expeditions, with saying that the effects were of momentous, even transcendent value to the development of our country. Without the incorporation of Old Oregon into the United States, we would in all probability not have got California, and without our Pacific Coast frontage, think what a crippled and curtailed Union this would be! We would surely have missed our destiny without the Pacific Coast. The Lewis and Clark expedition was one of the essential links in the chain of acquisition. The summary of distances by the party is a total of 3,555 miles on the most direct route from the Mississippi at the mouth of the Missouri, to the Pacific Ocean, and the total distance descending the Columbia waters is placed at 640 miles.

President Jefferson did not exaggerate the character of this expedition in the