After being
confined so long to the thick forests and mountains of the seacoast, the
party found this prospect very exhilarating, notwithstanding the absence
of forests and thickets. The climate, too, was much more agreeable than
that to which they had lately been accustomed, being dry and pure.
Chapter XX -- The Last Stage of the Columbia
On the thirteenth of April the party reached the series of falls and
rapids which they called the Long Narrows. At the point reached the
river is confined, for a space of about fourteen miles, to narrow
channels and rocky falls. The Long Narrows are now known as the Dalles.
The word "dalles" is French, and signifies flagstones, such as are used
for sidewalks. Many of the rocks in these narrows are nearly flat on
top, and even the precipitous banks look like walls of rock. At the
upper end of the rapids, or dalles, is Celilo City, and at the lower end
is Dalles City, sometimes known as "The Dalles." Both of these places
are in Oregon; the total fall of the water from Celilo to the Dalles
is over eighty feet. Navigation of these rapids is impossible. As the
explorers had no further use for their pirogues, they broke them up for
fuel. The merchandise was laboriously carried around on the river bank.
They were able to buy four horses from the Skilloots for which they paid
well in goods. It was now nearly time for the salmon to begin to run,
and under date of April 19 the journal has this entry:--
"The whole village was filled with rejoicing to-day at having caught a
single salmon, which was considered as the harbinger of vast quantities
in four or five days.
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