"In this connection may also be mentioned a couple of modern fortifications, erected by the Yakamas upon the Sunkive fork. They are situated between two small branches, upon the summits of a narrow ridge some two hundred yards long, and thirty feet in height, and are about twenty-five yards apart. The first is a square with rounded corners, formed by an earthen embankment capped with stones; the interstices between which served for loop-holes, and without any ditch. It is about thirty feet on the sides, and the wall three feet high. The other is built of adobes, in the form of a rectangle, twenty by thirty-four feet, the walls three feet high, and twelve to eighteen inches thick, with loop-holes six feet apart. Both are commanded within rifle-shot by neighboring hills. They were erected in 1847 by Skloo, as a defence against the Cayuse. We did not hear whether they were successfully maintained, accounts varying greatly in this respect. In the same neighborhood Captain M'Clellan's party noticed small piles of stones raised by the Indians on the edges of the basaltic walls which enclose these valleys, but were informed that they had no purpose; they were put up through idleness. Similar piles are, however, sometimes erected to mark the fork of a trail. At points on these walls there were also many graves, generally made in regular form, covered with loose stones to protect them from the cayotes, and marked by poles decorated with tin cups, powder-horns, and articles of dress. During the summer the Indians for the most part live in the small valleys lying well into the foot of the mountains. These are, however, uninhabitable during the winter, and they move further down, or to more sheltered situations. The mission which, in summer, is maintained in the A-tá-nam valley, is transferred into that of the main river."[25] [23] Schoolcraft, VI. p. 612. [24] Schoolcraft, VI. p. 613. [25] Cf. also Bancroft, IV. p. 736; Stevens, pp. 232-3; Gibbs, (a), pp. 408-9.