Having proceeded sixteen miles we saw the first ash, willow, and aspen trees, which was a most agreeable change from the bare banks and plains. Continuing nine miles we saw two mountains to the west, each isolated and heavily capped with snow. On both sides of the river are high hills with summits also covered in the same. Both sides of the river have woods of aspen, cedar, ash, and willow, but none of fine growth only a mass of branches.

Having descended forty miles, the greatest part being a fine steady current, we came to a village of houses built of logs. The chief came and invited me to his house which was strongly built of logs with the inside clean and neatly arranged. Separate bed places were fastened to the walls and raised about three feet off of the clean earthen floor. A number of small poles were fixed in the upper part from which hung as many salmon drying and smoking as space permitted. The salmon are fat and good on their first arrival, but were now losing much of their good condition. Salmon that enter the Columbia River are of five species as pointed out to me by the natives with the largest being fifty to fifty-five pounds in weight. The natives say that no two species enter the same stream to spawn and that each species enters a separate river for that purpose. One of the smaller species was named Quinze Sous, which amused the fancy of my men, it being the name of a small silver coin.