and materials, and calculated to contain about thirty souls. They were
unusually hospitable and good-humored, so that we gave to the place the
name of the Friendly village. We breakfasted here; and after purchasing
twelve dogs, four sacks of fish, and a few dried berries, proceeded on
our journey. The hills as we passed were high, with steep, rocky sides,
with pine and white oak, and an undergrowth of shrubs scattered over
them."
Leaving the Friendly village, the party went on their way down the
river. Four miles below they came to a small and rapid river which they
called the Cataract River, but which is now known as the Klikitat. The
rapids of the stream, according to the Indians, were so numerous that
salmon could not ascend it, and the Indians who lived along its banks
subsisted on what game they could kill with their bows and arrows and on
the berries which, in certain seasons, were plentiful. Again we notice
the purchase of dogs; this time only four were bought, and the party
proceeded on their way. That night, having travelled thirty-two miles,
they camped on the right bank of the river in what is now Skamania
County, Washington. Three huts were inhabited by a considerable number
of Indians, of whom the journal has this to say:--
"On our first arrival they seemed surprised, but not alarmed, and we
soon became intimate by means of smoking and our favorite entertainment
for the Indians, the violin. They gave us fruit, roots, and root-bread,
and we purchased from them three dogs. The houses of these people are
similar to those of the Indians above, and their language is the same;
their dress also, consisting of robes or skins of wolves, deer, elk,
and wildcat, is made nearly after the same model; their hair is worn in
plaits down each shoulder, and round their neck is put a strip of some
skin with the tail of the animal hanging down over the breast; like the
Indians above, they are fond of otter-skins, and give a great price for
them. We here saw the skin of a mountain sheep, which they say lives
among the rocks in the mountains; the skin was covered with white hair;
the wool was long, thick, and coarse, with long coarse hair on the top
of the neck and on the back, resembling somewhat the bristles of a goat.
Immediately behind the village is a pond, in which were great numbers of
small swan."
The "mountain sheep" mentioned here are not the bighorn of which we have
heard something in the earlier part of this n
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