Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/283

Rh fowling piece by their side & a loaded pistol in each hand. Occasionally the old man visits the graves of his sons & exposes the bodies to see that all the ornaments remain about them, & if necessary to put new blankets & mats around them. Point Ellis used to be the favourite residence of the Chinooks, but since the calamities of the chief's family, Comcomly & most of his people have abandoned it.

One of the canoes contained the remains of Shalapan, the favorite son & intended heir of Comcomli. This young man, had he lived, might have raised his countrymen far above their present condition. The Indians never talk of him without shedding tears; & as a proof of his zeal to acquire knowledge it need only be mentioned that he had made some proficiency in reading & writing, & could talk English fluently.

The Chinook village presented nothing but a few skeletons of houses, as the inhabitants had removed to their winter quarters.

After dinner we left the ship & set out for Ft. Vancouver. We landed at Ft. George & found it entirely abandoned by the settlers & taken possession of by the Indians, who were rapidly reducing it to a state of ruin & filth. We left the Fort at 6 o'clock in an Indian canoe & next morning we breakfasted about 20 miles from Ft. George. The place where we stopped was a low alluvial island, covered with willows & Cyperaceæ, but afforded some curious plants. I found Solanum Nigrum, Sagittaria sagittifolia, Impatiens, Valeriana spiralis, & fine nondescript species of Sisyrhynchium, with yellow flowers. This plant might be named in honor of Mr. Douglass, who has been so zealously employed in collecting the vegetable productions of the N. W. Coast.

The north bank of the Columbia for 50 miles from the sea has an abrupt & rocky appearance, while the opposite