were larger
and better-shaped than those of the sea-coast, but they were nearly
all afflicted with sore eyes. The loss of one eye was common, and not
infrequently total blindness was observed in men of mature years, while
blindness was almost universal among the old people. The white men
made good use of the eye-water which was among their supplies; it was
gratefully received by the natives and won them friends among the people
they met. On the fifth of April the journal has this entry:--

"In the course of his chase yesterday, one of our men (Collins), who
had killed a bear, found the den of another with three cubs in it. He
returned to-day in hopes of finding her, but brought only the cubs,
without being able to see the dam; and on this occasion Drewyer, our
most experienced huntsman, assured us that he had never known a single
instance where a female bear, which had once been disturbed by a hunter
and obliged to leave her young, returned to them again. The young bears
were sold for wappatoo to some of the many Indians who visited us in
parties during the day and behaved very well."

And on the ninth is this entry:--

"The wind having moderated, we reloaded the canoes and set out by seven
o'clock. We stopped to take up the two hunters who left us yesterday,
but were unsuccessful in the chase, and then proceeded to the Wahclellah
village, situated on the north side of the river, about a mile below
Beacon Rock. During the whole of the route from camp we passed along
under high, steep, and rocky sides of the mountains, which now close on
each side of the river, forming stupendous precipices, covered with
fir and white cedar. Down these heights frequently descend the most
beautiful cascades, one of which, a large creek, throws itself over
a perpendicular rock three hundred feet above the water, while other
smaller streams precipitate themselves from a still greater elevation,
and evaporating in a mist, collect again and form a second cascade
before they reach the bottom of the rocks. We stopped to breakfast at
this village. We here found the tomahawk which had been stolen from us
on the fourth of last November. They assured us they had bought it of
the Indians below; but as the latter had already informed us that the
Wahclellahs had such an article, which they had stolen, we made no
difficulty about retaking our property."

The Columbia along the region through which the expedition was now
passing is a very wild and