Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/58

 above the lake had also the reputation amongst the Indians of the neighborhood of being "Mesatchie Illihee" and of being the haunt of evil spirits. The first surveying party of the whites that went through identified the evil spirits in clouds of mosquitoes, which at times made the place uninhabitable and undesirable by either men or game. "Mesatchie Illihee" meant only rough, bad or difficult country, but the Indian ghosts and hobgoblins seemed to like this kind of country, for they were always located in it by the Indian story tellers.

The forest was so vast that the multitude of animals and birds that roamed through and lived in it were completely out of sight, and it was quite a common experience for the early explorers and surveyors to travel through it for weary days without seeing more than a pine