Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/208

 200 DOCUMENT variety of flowers, grow to" an extraordinary size, whilst the finest grasses are seen at this season fringing the sides of the hills to the water's edge. For the first ten miles, as you ascend the Columbia from Chenook and Point George, which may, properly speaking, be called the mouth of the river, its width is about four miles. It then narrows to about one mile, and continues at this width to Vancouver, (with but two excep- tions, for a mile or two.) At "Oak Point" village, the oak is first seen: from thence the oak, ash, laurel, cotton wood, beach, alder, pines, firs, yew, and cedar, are found to the falls. Geological formations at Fort George are concretions of shells, sandstone, and plumbago. On the Willhamett, remark- ably fine gray granite is found. Indian statistics. The first tribes of Indians in Baker's bay, are the Chenook on the north, Clatsops on the south. The lat- ter live at Point Adams and on Young's river, where Lewis and Clark wintered. Both tribes at this time do not exceed 800. Rum Rumley [Concomly] the principal chief of the Clat- sops, who was always the white man's friend, and who rendered every assistance in his power to Lewis and Clark, is no more; and, as an evidence of the effect of intemperance among these miserable Indians, out of 40 descendants of this chief not one is this day alive, Chenamas (Chenook) claims authority over the people from "Baker's bay" to the Cowility [Cowlitz] ; but Squamaqui disputes his authority from Gray's bay to the above point. From the river Cowility to the falls of the Columbia, (see map,) "Kassenow" claims authority. His tribe, since 1829, has lost more than 2,000 souls by fever. They are principally "Rea Ratacks," very erratic, and the only good hunters on the river below the falls, as all the other tribes immediately on the river below the falls, as well as those who frequent the waters of the Columbia during the season of the salmon and sturgeon, subsist chiefly on fish and wild fowl; and the ease with which they procure food, fish, and fowl, with the delicious vegetables the "Wapspitoo" [Wapato] and "Kamass" engen- ders the most indolent habits among these people.