Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/72

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52
CATHLAMET ON THE COLUMBIA

Pacific Ocean. Every aged Indian told stories of a time when the rivers were lined with villages and floated many canoes.

At Marr's Landing, about three miles below Castle Rock, on the Columbia, the river has in the last few years been washing away what is known as the island, and has uncovered the site of old Indian camp fires.These stretch in a long line up and down the beach. They are covered with two or three feet of loam, and on this fir trees a hundred years old have grown. As many as fifteen or twenty stone hammers have been found about a single fireplace, and these old charred fires are preserved as they were 200 years ago. One pathetic little relic found amongst the big stone hammers was a tiny little hammer and pestle, evidently playthings of an Indian child. On Archer Mountain, a mile or two west, are