Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/204

 firm, and the fat hard and white: it is far superior to the wild horse, the flesh of which is loose and stringy, and the fat yellow and rather oily. We generally killed the former for our own table; and I can assure my readers, that if they sat down to a fat rib, or a rump-steak off a well-fed four-year-old, without knowing the animal, they would imagine themselves regaling on a piece of prime ox beef. In February we took immense quantities of carp in Spokan river above its junction with the Pointed-heart, and in a few weeks after the trout came in great abundance.

The Spokans we found to be a quiet, honest, inoffensive tribe; and although we had fortified our establishment in the manner above mentioned, we seldom closed the gates at night. Their country did not abound in furs, and they were rather indolent in hunting. Their chief, Illimspokanee, or the Son of the Sun, was a harmless old man, who spent a great portion of his time between us and Mr. McMillan. We entered into a compact with that gentleman to abstain from giving the Indians any spirituous liquors, to which both parties strictly adhered. Mr. Clarke, who was an old trader himself, had often witnessed the baneful effects of giving ardent spirits to Indians,