Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/46



We saw, while passing down, on the North side of the river, a large Indian burying place, where the bones of hundreds were heaped together, in pens about eight feet square, made of thin Cedar slabs, hewn and set upon end in the earth, covered with bark, and ornamented with carved images of birds, beasts, skeletons if men and imaginary monsters. Some of these pens had rotted down, and the naked skeletons lay scattered over the ground. We found in one, a body not yet decayed, wrapped in a blanket, and laying upon a board shelf. The Falls afford one of the best Salmon fisheries in the Territory, and here the Indians take, in the Spring, great quantities of fish. It rained on us during the night we were at the Falls, and, with little intermission, during our passage to Vancouver. Below the Falls on the South side, there is, for several miles, a perpendicular rock bluff, rising from the water five hundred feet; over which several small streams are pouring, in beautiful Cascades. The Columbia is broad and deep from the falls to the Ocean, and the tide runs up to the foot of the Rapids. Twenty miles below the Cascades, the River makes a sudden bend, about a high Mountain point, called Cape Horn. Immediately on the point, there are several spires of solid rock, rising, like huge horns, out of the water, from fifty to sixty feet high. Here we were met by a heavy gale of wind, and compelled to run ashore, and remain until the next day. This frequently happens to voyagers, on this part of the River. In one instance, a crew of emigrants were under the necessity of throwing part of their loading overboard, in order to gain the shore. A few miles below Cape Horn, the highlands on the South side, recede from the River, leaving wide, low bottoms; which generally overflow in the Spring. This low land continues to widen, to the mouth of the Willamette, and extends up that River about eight miles. In this part of the Columbia, there are many low Islands. After a very disagreeable passage, we landed at Fort Vancouver, forty miles below the Cascade Falls. It is situated on the North side of the River, one hundred miles above its mouth. The building occupied as stores, warehouses, shops, residences of the agents, men, &c., make quite a village. The ground back, for half a mile, is level; and then rises, with a gradual inclination, until it is elevated several hundred feet above the River. It is set with grass, and makes a very pretty appearance. Vessels drawing fifteen feet water, ascend the Columbia this far, without any difficulty. Vancouver is the principal depot of the Hudson's Bay Fur