the most of those which were not thrown down by the motion, and agitation, would have been found standing in various inclined positions, but on the contrary, we find them nearly all standing erect. And again, what is highly improbable, the slides must all have been very nearly simultaneous, as the trees are all about in the same state of preservation. The most of them stand opposite where we considered the shores too gradual to admit of a slide. There are many large nooks in the Mountains, along this part of the River, which are suitable for small settlements.
Fifty miles below the Mission we came to the Cascade Falls. Here the River, compressed into two thirds of its usual width, descends over huge rocks several hundred yards, with an inclination of about five degrees; and from the head to the foot of the Rapids, a distance of four miles, the water descends about fifty feet. From the great agitation of the water, caused by its rushing with such velocity down its rocky channel, the surface of the River, for several hundred yards, is as white as a field of snow. On the South the dark basaltic walls, rising perpendicularly four or five hundred feet, are covered with Pines. There are small islands of rock, both above and below the Falls, many of which are timbered, and huge volcanic fragments cover either shore. Here we were obliged to leave our canoes and carry our baggage nearly four miles, over rocks and hills, to the foot of the Rapids, where we found a bateau, which had been brought up from the Fort for the accommodation of the Emigrants.
We saw, while passing down, on the North side of the River, a large Indian burying place, where the bones of hundreds were heaped together in pens about eight feet square, made of thin Cedar slabs hewn and set upon end in the earth, covered with bark, and ornamented with carved images of birds, beasts, skeletons of men, and imaginary monsters. Some of these pens had rotted down,
