Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/46

 three thousand five hundred bushels of different grains, such as wheat, peas, barley, oats, corn, buckwheat, &c., and as many potatoes; has eighty head of cattle, and one hundred hogs. This post furnishes supplies of provisions for a great many forts north, south and west. The country on both sides of the stream, from Kettle Falls to within four miles of the lower Lake, is covered with dense forests of pine, spruce, and small birch. The northwestern shore is rather low, but the southern high and rocky. In this distance are several tracts of rich bottom land, covered with a kind of creeping red clover, and the white species common to the States. The lower lake of the Columbia is about thirty-five miles in length, and four or five in breadth. Its shores are bold, and clad with a heavy growth of pine, spruce, &c.[43] From these waters the voyager obtains the first view of the snowy heights in the main chain of the Rocky Mountains.

The Flathead River enters into the Columbia a short distance above Fort Colville. It is as long, and discharges nearly as much water as that part of Columbia above their junction. It rises near the {235} sources of the Missouri and Sascatchawine.[44] The ridges which separate them are said to be easy to pass. It falls into the Columbia over a confused heap of immense rocks, just above the place where the latter stream forms the Kettle Falls, in its passage through a spur of the Rocky Mountains. About one hundred miles from its mouth, the Flathead River forms a lake thirty-six miles long and seven or eight wide. It is called Lake Kullerspelm. A rich and beautiful country spreads off from it in all directions, to the