As tracts suitable for agricultural purposes, may be mentioned several fertile and rich flats on the Columbia, although the country generally presents but a rocky, light, and sandy soil. On the south side, the river is joined, about eighty miles above Astoria, by the Wallamitte, a fine clear stream, 300 miles long, which, with its tributary rivulets, fertilizes one of the finest valleys west of the Rocky Mountains. The Wallamitte was always called by the whites, “the garden of the Columbia.” For forty miles the river is navigable for boats of the largest size, to the falls, but there it is barred across by a ledge of rocks, over which the whole body of water descends—a height of 30 feet— in one smooth green sheet. The climate of this valley is salubrious and dry, differing materially from that of the sea-coast; and the heat is sufficiently intense to ripen every kind of grain in a short time. Descending from the Wallamitte to Puget’s Sound, north of the Columbia, where there is a large and {101} convenient sea-port, or harbour, we find here a tract ranking next, perhaps, in an agricultural point of view. The plain is well watered by several fine rivers, and is far more extensive than the valley of the Wallamitte, nor is the soil much inferior; but there is a vast difference in the climate; rain falls near the coast almost incessantly from the beginning of November till April, and the country in other respects is gloomy and forbidding. But, however inviting may be the soil, the remote distance and savage aspect of the boundless wilderness along the Pacific seem to defer the colonization of such a region to a period far beyond the present generation; and yet, if we consider the rapid progress of civilization in other new and equally remote countries, we might still indulge the hope of seeing this, at no distant time, one of the most flourishing countries on the globe. The language spoken by these people is guttural, very difficult for a foreigner to learn, and equally hard to pronounce. To speak the Chinook dialect, you must be a Chinook. {102} CHAPTER VII First expedition into the interior—Number of the party—Tongue Point— Canoe swamped—Sailing difficulties—Indian villages—Cedars—First night’s encampment—Mount Coffin—Cowlitz—Wallamitte—Columbia Valley— Point Vancouver—Difficulties—The Cascades—Concourse of Indians— General appearance of the country—The portage—Description of the Cascades—The roll of tobacco—Pilfering—Mr. Thompson—Exchange of men— The Long Narrows—Warlike appearance of the Indian cavalry—Button contract—Critical situation of the party—Camp of gamblers—The narrows—Hard work at the carrying place—A day’s work—Description of the portage—Number of Indians—Aspect of the country—The plains begin—End of the woods—Want of sleep—Demeanour of the Indians.