Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/58

Rh widely read with that deep interest we always feel when we hear tidings of a better land. The "Oregon fever" followed.

When we passed the Cascades the river was at the lowest stage and the water covered only a part of the river bed. On the north side the stone floor of the bed was covered with soft green moss. Being barefoot, I enjoyed walking on this soft carpet, where in the early summer the waters roll fifty feet deep. I passed men who were dragging a boat over this moss covered stone floor. Getting past this obstruction was called "The Portage of the Cascades." The boats had to be drawn or carried over the rocks a considerable distance. I remember meeting an Indian at this place. Some one must have spoken to him for he stood still and striking one hand on his breast said emphatically, "Waskopum!"

When the boats had been launched below the Cascades, we had navigated the river from old Fort Walla Walla to the head of navigation, and had an open and safe water way to the sea. Below the Cascades there were seals in the river. None were seen on the shore, yet I never saw one swimming. We would see heads sticking up out of the water, but they would vanish before we could get near. But I felt that I knew something about seals, for had I not worn a seal skin cap three years, until it was almost as slick and hard as a steel helmet. And it would have been almost as good as new, had not the brim parted company with it on the night of the thunder storm on the Big Blue.

Some where in this part of the country an effort was made to get a colt for food. I saw the animal they were bargaining for; it was fat and sleek and almost grown. Some one said, "It will make good eating." For some reason the colt was not secured; why? I did not learn. We had been without flesh of beast or bird for a long time. There were not cattle, sheep or hogs in that part of the wilderness in those days. I cannot say that we had plenty to eat at all times, neither was there a time when we were in danger of starving, but we skirmished for food and ate what we learned the natives had found good to feed upon: berries, acorns, tender plants, the yampa and cammas, tubers, bulbs, and roots. We drew the line, however, at a few of the Waskopum luxuries and dainties, namely, caterpillars, the larvae of yellow jackets and tainted fish eggs.