The fish thus preserved keep sound and sweet for several years,
and great quantities, they inform us, are sent to the Indians who live
below the falls, whence it finds its way to the whites who visit the
mouth of the Columbia. We observe, both near the lodges and on the rocks
in the river, great numbers of stacks of these pounded fish. Besides
fish, these people supplied us with filberts and berries, and we
purchased a dog for supper; but it was with much difficulty that we were
able to buy wood enough to cook it."
On the twenty-third the voyagers made the descent of the great falls
which had so long been an object of dread to them. The whole height of
the falls is thirty-seven feet, eight inches, in a distance of twelve
hundred yards. A portage of four hundred and fifty yards was made around
the first fall, which is twenty feet high, and perpendicular. By means
of lines the canoes were let down the rapids below. At the season of
high water the falls become mere rapids up which the salmon can pass. On
this point the journal says:--
"From the marks everywhere perceivable at the falls, it is obvious that
in high floods, which must be in the spring, the water below the falls
rises nearly to a level with that above them. Of this rise, which is
occasioned by some obstructions which we do not as yet know, the salmon
must avail themselves to pass up the river in such multitudes that this
fish is almost the only one caught in great abundance above the falls;
but below that place we observe the salmon-trout, and the heads of
a species of trout smaller than the salmon-trout, which is in great
quantities, and which they are now burying, to be used as their winter
food.
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