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 nine or ten miles, and keeps it for about twelve miles up. The left bank, which we were coasting, being concealed by little low islands, {105} we encamped for the night on one of them, at the village of Wahkaykum, to which our guide belonged.[45]

We continued our journey on the 3d: the river narrows considerably, at about thirty miles from its mouth, and is obstructed with islands, which are thickly covered with the willow, poplar, alder, and ash. These islands are, without exception, uninhabited and uninhabitable, being nothing but swamps, and entirely overflowed in the months of June and July; as we understood from Coalpo, our guide, who appeared to be an intelligent man.[46] In proportion as we advanced, we saw the high mountains capped with snow, which form the chief and majestic feature, though a stern one, of the banks of the Columbia for some distance from its mouth, recede, and give place to a country of moderate elevation, and rising amphitheatrically from the margin of the stream. The river narrows to a mile or thereabouts; the forest is less dense, and patches of green prairie are seen. We passed a large village on the south bank, called Kreluit, above which is a fine forest {106} of oaks;[47] and encamped for the night, on a low point, at the foot of an isolated rock, about one hundred and fifty feet high. This rock appeared