ulation always increased up to the limit of
food supply, unquestionably the theory of repeated migratory waves of
surplus population from the Columbia Valley would be plausible enough.
It is only necessary, however, to turn to the accounts of the earlier
explorers of this region, Lewis and Clarke, for example, to refute the
idea, so far at least as the Columbia Valley is concerned, although a
study of the many diverse languages spread over the United States would
seem sufficiently to prove that the tribes speaking them could not have
originated at a common center, unless, indeed, at a period anterior to
the formation of organized language.

The Indians inhabiting the Columbia Valley were divided into many
tribes, belonging to several distinct linguistic families. They all were
in the same culture status, however, and differed in habits and arts
only in minor particulars. All of them had recourse to the salmon of the
Columbia for the main part of their subsistence, and all practiced
similar crude methods of curing fish and storing it away for the winter.
Without exception, judging from the accounts of the above mentioned and
of more recent authors, all the tribes suffered periodically more or
less from insufficient food supply, although, with the exercise of due
forethought and economy, even with their rude methods of catching and
curing salmon, enough might here have been cured annually to suffice for
the wants of the Indian population of the entire Northwest for several
years.

In their ascent of the river in spring, before the salmon run, it was
only with great difficulty that Lewis and Clarke were able to provide
themselves by purchase with enough food to keep themselves from
starving. Several parties of Indians from the vicinity of the Dalles,
the best fishing station on the river, were met on their way down in
quest of food, their supply of dried salmon having been entirely
exhausted.

Nor is there anything in the accounts of any of the early visitors to
the Columbia Valley to authorize the belief that the population there
was a very large one. As was the case with all fish-stocked streams, the
Columbia was resorted to in the fishing season by many tribes living at
considerable distance from it; but there is no evidence tending to show
that the settled population of its banks or of any part of its drainage
basin was or ever had been by any means excessive.

The Dalles, as stated above, was the best fishing stat