Page:Wishram by Henry J. Biddle.djvu/9

Rh to any the travelers had yet seen west of the Rocky Mountains. In general, the dwellings of the savages of the Pacific side of that great barrier were mere tents and cabins of mats, or skins, or straw.. . In Wish-ram, on the contrary, the houses were built of wood, with long sloping roofs."

It is evident that Irving was perfectly familiar with the narrative of Lewis and Clark, and meant exactly what he said when he put the first village of "houses built of wood" at the head of "the Long Narrows." But where did he get the name Wish-ram? It does not appear in the early narratives. Perhaps he got it in personal conversation with some of the voyageurs, perhaps in some journal which has never been published. The writer hopes that some day this question will be solved. But the description of wooden houses, and the location at the head of the Long Narrows, make it evident to the writer that the village of the Wish-ram was the village of the Echelute of Lewis and Clark. Attention must here be called to the fact that he does not call it Wishram, but the village of the Wishram. This is an important point in trying to explain the subsequent complexity of names. The next quotation is from Ross Cox, "Adventures on the Columbia River" (published 1831).

(July 12, 1812.) "We encamped late at the upper end of the falls, near a village of the Eneeshurs,... This confirms Lewis and Clark in placing the Eneeshers at the Falls, but nowhere in his narrative does he mention the Echelutes. It is possible that at this time the portage was sometimes made on the Oregon side of the river, where in later years a wagon road was built, and the villages on the Washington side thus passed unnoticed

In the narrative of Gabriel Franchere:

(April, 1814). "On the 12th, we arrived at a rapid called the Dalles;....." This is the first time the writer has found the term Dalles used for Long Narrows