Those Indians in
turn employ them to procure from the Indians in the Rocky Mountains,
bear-grass, pachico-roots, robes, etc.
"These Indians are rather below the common size, with high cheek-bones;
their noses are pierced, and in full dress ornamented with a tapering
piece of white shell or wampum about two inches long. Their eyes are
exceedingly sore and weak; many of them have only a single eye, and
some are perfectly blind. Their teeth prematurely decay, and in frequent
instances are altogether worn away. Their general health, however, seems
to be good, the only disorder we have remarked being tumors in different
parts of the body."
The more difficult rapid was passed on the second day of November, the
luggage being sent down by land and the empty canoes taken down with
great care. The journal of that date says:--
"The rapid we have just passed is the last of all the descents of the
Columbia. At this place the first tidewater commences, and the river
in consequence widens immediately below the rapid. As we descended we
reached, at the distance of one mile from the rapid, a creek under
a bluff on the left; at three miles is the lower point of Strawberry
Island. To this immediately succeed three small islands covered with
wood. In the meadow to the right, at some distance from the hills,
stands a perpendicular rock about eight hundred feet high and four
hundred yards around the base. This we called Beacon Rock. Just below is
an Indian village of nine houses, situated between two small creeks.
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