CHAPTER VIII.

Voyage up the River.--Description of the Country.--Meeting with
strange Indians.


The Indians having informed us that above certain rapids, there was an
establishment of white men, we doubted not that it was a trading post of
the Northwest Company; and to make sure of it, we procured a large canoe
and a guide, and set out, on the 2d of May, Messrs M'Kay, R. Stuart,
Montigny, and I, with a sufficient number of hands. We first passed a
lofty head-land, that seemed at a distance to be detached from the main,
and to which we gave the name of _Tongue Point_. Here the river gains a
width of some nine or ten miles, and keeps it for about twelve miles up.
The left bank, which we were coasting, being concealed by little low
islands, we encamped for the night on one of them, at the village of
_Wahkaykum_, to which our guide belonged.

We continued our journey on the 3d: the river narrows considerably, at
about thirty miles from its mouth, and is obstructed with islands, which
are thickly covered with the willow, poplar, alder, and ash. These
islands are, without exception, uninhabited and uninhabitable, being
nothing but swamps, and entirely overflowed in the months of June and
July; as we understood from _Coalpo_, our guide, who appeared to be an
intelligent man. In proportion as we advanced, we saw the high mountains
capped with snow, which form the chief and majestic feature, though a
stern one, of the banks of the Columbia for some distance from its
mouth, recede, and give place to a country of moderate elevation, and
rising amphitheatrically from the margin of the stream. The river