now better known as the
Willamette. He was surprised to find that the depth of water in the
river was so great that large vessels might enter it. He would have been
much more surprised if he had been told that a large city, the largest
in Oregon, would some day be built on the site of the Indian huts which
he saw. Here Captain Clark found a house occupied by several families
of the Neechecolee nation. Their mansion was two hundred and twenty-six
feet long and was divided into apartments thirty feet square.

The most important point in this region of the Columbia was named
Wappatoo Island by the explorers. This is a large extent of country
lying between the Willamette and an arm of the Columbia which they
called Wappatoo Inlet, but which is now known as Willamette Slough.
It is twenty miles long and from five to ten miles wide. Here is an
interesting description of the manner of gathering the roots of the
wappatoo, of which we have heard so much in this region of country:--

"The chief wealth of this island consists of the numerous ponds in the
interior, abounding with the common arrowhead (sagittaria sagittifolia)
to the root of which is attached a bulb growing beneath it in the mud.
This bulb, to which the Indians give the name of wappatoo,(1) is the
great article of food, and almost the staple article of commerce on the
Columbia. It is never out of season; so that at all times of the year
the valley is frequented by the neighboring Indians who come to gather
it. It is collected chiefly by the women, who employ for the purpose
canoes from ten to fourteen feet in length, about two feet wide and nine
inches deep, and tapering from the middle, where they are about twenty
inches wide. They are sufficient to contain a single person and several
bushels of roots, yet so very light that a woman can carry them with
ease. She takes one of these canoes into a pond where the water is as
high as the breast, and by means of her toes separates from the root
this bulb, which on being freed from the mud rises immediately to the
surface of the water, and is thrown into the canoe. In this manner these
patient females remain in the water for several hours, even in the depth
of winter. This plant is found through the whole extent of the valley in
which we now are, but does not grow on the Columbia farther eastward."

(1) In the Chinook jargon "Wappatoo" stands for potato.

The natives of this inland region, the explorers found,