Page:Route Across the Rocky Mountains with a Description of Oregon and California.djvu/54



level, has a soil of a rather better quality, and is also covered with good grass. On the North side, where the California trail crosses the Valley, it is principally wooded; on the South, Prairie. Immediately above, the proportion of prairie and timber is very good. Here, as in the Umqua Valley, the timber is on the streams, and the prairies are between them. There is, in the Valley, quite a considerable quantity of granite; but basaltic is the most prevalent rock. The Valley appears to widen above: its length is not known. It is traversed by Rogue's River; a stream somewhat larger than the Umqua, and not so rapid but that it might probably be made useful for transportation. Salmon ascend the River in great numbers; and so do they indeed, most of the streams throughout the whole territory of Oregon. Water power is not wanting in the Valley of Rogue's River. A few miles below the California trail, the River appears to enter a Canion, and the Mountains along the coast are high and rugged; so as to prevent advantageous communication with the Sea-board. The Indians who inhabit this Valley are numerous, and almost in a state of nature. They are of small stature; but well proportioned—slender, active, and sensible. They have never had any intercourse, of consequence, with the whites, and have, therefore, but few of the articles manufactured by a civilized people. From their extreme hostility and treachery, and from the great amount of damage they have done to the white man, they have been almost universally called the Rascals. They seldom allow a company to pass, without molestation. They attack from ambuscades, made in defiles, chasms, and thickets. They have no fire arms; their principal weapons being the bow and arrow. Their bows are made of the wood of the Yew tree; short, and covered on the back with the sinews from the loins of the Elk, which are fastened on with glue, and neatly and securely wrapped at the ends with the same material. Their arrows are feathered, and pointed with small, delicate, uniform and very sharp heads of flint. These arrows they shoot with great force and precision. They seldom have horses, and if they take or kill an animal in their attacks, (which they endeavor to do as much as to take the lives of the men,) they afterwards cook and eat it, making a great feast. South of the Rogue's River Valley, is the Chesty Mountain, a single, and almost bald and barren ridge. To the right of the California trail, it bears a little to the South, and interlocks with the Mountains on the coast. The Northern base is covered with timber; the summit and Southern side,