Ross's Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813Ross, Alexander
History
Ross's Adventures of the first settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River, 1810-1813
Ross, Alexander
Mississippi River Valley -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Column Bluffs is the usual designation of this point on the river,
about ten miles above Gualquil Rapid. According to an Indian legend,
two wicked women who lived here were accustomed to kill those who
passed. The Indians begged the Great Spirit to destroy them, and he,
answering their prayer, sent an immense bird which picked out their
brains and turned them into stone.—ED.
Footnote 45:
Lewis and Clark called this river Wahnaacha, after the tribe of
Pisquow Indians of that name who dwelt along its banks. Wenatchee and
Pischous are both used to designate the stream at the present time. It
takes its rise in the Wenatchee Mountains and flows south-eastward,
emptying into the Columbia one hundred and forty-eight miles from the
mouth of the Snake. The Great Northern Railway follows its course.—ED.
Footnote 46:
Oak Point, mentioned so frequently in accounts of Columbian
exploration, was near Astoria—Franchère, note 74. The one here
referred to must be near the mouth of the Entiatqua (Entiyatecoom)
River, known to the Canadian voyageurs as Point de Bois. The
Entiatqua, which Ross calls Intyclook, is a small stream about a
hundred feet wide, flowing into the Columbia from the west, fifteen
miles above the Pischous.—ED.
Footnote 47:
Between Oak Point and White Hill Rapid the west bank is a continuous
volcanic bluff about two thousand feet high and striped with
different-colored strata—white, gray, black, and dark brown. The rapid
was doubtless named from the white hills on the eastern side.—ED.
Footnote 48:
Concerning these animals, see Franchère, note 172.—ED.
Footnote 49:
This is the Chelan River, which empties into the Columbia from the
north-west, about one hundred and eighty-five miles above the Snake.
It is but two and a half miles long, is the outlet of a considerable
lake of the same name, and has a fall of two hundred and fifty feet.
Just above its mouth was the principal village of the Chelan tribe, a
branch of the Salish. A military post was established on this lake
(1880), but not long after was removed to Spokane.—ED.
Footnote 50:
Ross also calls this the Meathow River, and Methow is at present the
usual appellation. The rapids just below the mouth have been named
Ross Rapids, probably in honor of our author.—ED.
Footnote 51:
The distance is really about one hundred and twenty-five miles. For a
brief history of Okanagan post, see Franchère, note 71.—ED.
Footnote 52:
This river was discovered by the explorer Thompson (for whom see
Franchère, note 61). It has two large branches, a northern and an
eastern, which unite at Lake Kamloops, one hundred and fifty miles
directly north of the Okanagan post; the united stream then flows
south-west for about ninety miles and unites with the Fraser.
Thompson, thinking that he was upon the Columbia, descended its
northern branch to the forks.—ED.
Footnote 53:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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