the trees about five feet
from the ground. This cemetery of the Columbia is, however, destroyed,
for the American sailors under Wilkes, neglecting to put out their
cooking-fire, it spread over the whole mountain, and continued to rage
through the night, till all was burnt. A few small presents appeased
the Indians, who but a few years before could only have drowned the
remembrance of such a national disgrace in the blood of those who caused
it.

Among the tribes about the lower part of the Columbia the singular
custom of flattening the head still prevails, though not to the extent
it did formerly; Mr Dunn thus describes the operation:--

"Immediately after the birth, the infant is laid in an oblong wooden
trough, by way of cradle, with moss under the head; the end on which the
head reposes is raised higher than the rest; a padding is then placed on
the infant's forehead, with a piece of cedar-bark over it; it is pressed
down by cords, which pass through holes on each side of the trough. As
the tightening of the padding and pressure of the head is gradual, the
process is said not to be attended with much pain. The appearance of
the infant, however, while under it, is shocking,--its little black eyes
seem ready to start from their sockets; the mouth exhibits all the
appearance of internal convulsion; and it clearly appears that the face
is undergoing a process of unnatural configuration. About a year's
pressure is sufficient to produce the desired effect; the head is ever
after completely flattened;" and as slaves are always left to nature,
this deformity is consequently a mark of free birth. The Indians on the
north coast possess the characteristics of the southern, but harsher and
more boldly defined--they are of fiercer and more treacherous
dispositions. Indeed, those of the south have a disposition to
merriment and light-hearted good humour. Their mechanical ingenuity is
more remarkably displayed in the carving on their pipes, and especially
in working iron and steel. The Indians of the coast are doubtless all
from the same stock, modified by circumstances and locality. Those,
however, to the south of the Columbia, about the waters of the rivers
Klamet and Umqua, partake largely of the characteristics of the Indians
of the plains, their country having prairies, and themselves possessing
horses: they are remarkable for nothing but their determined hostility
towards the Whites. Idleness and filth are inveter