that way.

In the instincts of children and of uncivilized people, there seems
something to trust. This idea of Heaven's lying toward the west appears
to have been held by the New-England Indians also, and is expressed in
Whittier's lines,--

"O mighty Sowanna!
Thy gateways unfold,
From thy wigwam of sunset
Lift curtains of gold!
Take home the poor spirit whose journey is o'er--
_Mat wonck kunna-monee!_ We see thee no more!"

The Chinese have also the "peaceful land in the west," lying far beyond
the visible universe.

Farther up the river, we passed some abandoned diggings, where little
colonies of patient, toilsome Chinamen had established themselves, and
were washing and sifting the earth discarded by previous miners; making,
we were told, on the average, two or three cents to the pan. The
Chinaman regularly pays, as a foreigner (and is almost the only
foreigner who does so), his mining-license tax to the State. He never
seeks to interfere with rich claims, and patiently submits to being
driven away from any neglected spot he may have chosen if a white man
takes a fancy to it.

We stopped one night at Umatilla City, a cheerless little settlement at
the junction of the Umatilla River with the Columbia, in the midst of a
bleak, dreary waste of sand and sage-brush, without a sign of a tree in
any direction, a perfect whirlwind blowing all the time. What could
induce people to live there, I could not imagine.

We stopped a day or two at Walla Walla, where one of the early forts was
established; the post having been transferred from Wallula, where it was
called Fort "Nez Perces," from the Indians in that vicinity, who wore in
their noses a small white shell, like the fluke of an anchor.

The journey from Walla Walla to Fort Colville occupied eleven days and
nights, during which time we did not take a meal in a house, nor sleep
in a bed. It was cold, rainy, and windy, a good deal of the time, but we
enjoyed it notwithstanding. To wake up in the clear air, with the
bright sky above us, when it was pleasant; and to reach at night the
little oases of willows and birches and running streams where we
camped,--was enough to repay us for a good deal of discomfort. At one of
the camping-grounds,--Cow Creek,--a beautiful bird sang all night; it
sounded like bubbling water.

For several days we saw only great sleepy-looking hills, stretching i