Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/51

 Warre and Vavasour^ 1845-6. 43 which the Indians collect and sell to the traders for their culi- nary purposes. The boats in which we descended are admirably adapted for this dangerous river navigation and for the conveyance of troops. Each boat would carry 15 or 20 men. But from the depth of water between the rapids, where it is necessary to make a "portage," there is no reason why a much larger boat might not be constructed for the conveyance of troops, etc. By the Pescous River falling into the Columbia below Okan- ogan, and by the Eyakama [Yakima] River above Fort Nez Perces, Indian roads exist over a mountainous country to Puget's Sound, which we believe might be made available for the conveyance of troops (landed in that harbor) into the interior. But we have not been able to make a personal inspec- tion of these routes. In 1841 the Hudson's Bay Company made use of one of these routes to convey cattle to Nesqually, on Puget's Sound. Fort Nez Perces on the Walla Walla River was formerly the point where the emigration from the United States em- barked on the Columbia, and it is still preferred by large num- bers of emigrant families. But a more southern and shorter route has been discovered by which they fall upon the Co- lumbia about 125 miles below the Walla Walla, at an imprac- ticable rapid called the "Dalles," formed by the contraction of the river bed into a narrow "trough" or channel, not more than 30 yards wide, where the boats, etc., are transported overland for a distance of one mile. We find according to the information collected from a num- ber of emigrants, recently arrived from the United States, that on leaving the Missouri they ascended the Platte River for about 400 miles, through a fine open country, with but few intervening rivers not easily forded, to the Forks, from whence, following a northwest course for about the same dis- tance, they reach the Rocky Mountains at a pass which is easily traversed by wagons, etc., through a valley 80 miles in length, terminating on the headwaters of the Colorado or