, is the great respect which is shown to old age.
Among other instances of it, the travellers observed, in one of the
houses, an old woman perfectly blind; and who, as they were informed,
had lived more than a hundred winters. In this state of decrepitude she
occupied the best position in the house, seemed to be treated with great
kindness, and whatever was said by her, was listened to with much
attention.

The fisheries supply the _Solkuks_ with a competent, if not an abundant
subsistence. Fish is, indeed, their chief food; except roots, and the
casual supplies of the antelope, which, to those who have only bows and
arrows, must be very scanty. Most of the Solkuks have sore eyes, and
many of them are blind of one or both eyes; and decayed teeth are very
common among them.

The party proceeded down the Columbia. Fish was here so abundant, that
in one day's voyage, they counted no fewer than twenty stacks of dried
salmon.

They passed the falls of this river. These are not great; but, at a
little distance below them, a very remarkable scene is presented to the
view. At a place where the river is about four hundred yards wide, and
where the stream flows with a current more rapid than usual, it widens
into a large bend or basin, at the extremity of which a black rock,
rising perpendicularly from the right shore, seems to run wholly across.
So completely did it appear to block up the passage, that the travellers
could not, as they approached, see where the water escaped; except that
the current appeared to be drawn with peculiar velocity towards the left
of the rock, where there was a great roaring. On landing, to survey it,
they found that, for about half a mile, the river was confined within a
channel only forty-five yards wide, whirling, swelling, and boiling, the
whole way, with the wildest agitation imaginable. Tremendous as the pass
was, they attempted it; and, to the astonishment of the Indians, they
accomplished it in safety.

In the vicinity of this place, a tribe of Indians, called _Echeloots_,
were settled. Here the travellers, for the first time, since they had
left the Illinois country, observed wooden buildings. The floors were
sunk about six feet in the ground, a custom implying at the same time a
cold and dry climate.

Proceeding on their way, they saw an Indian, dressed in a round hat and
a sailor's jacket, with his hair tied. Jackets, brass kettles, and other
European or American articles, were obser