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Show 185 [ 174 ] longitude 119° 22' 18". The night has been cold, and we have white frost this nwrning, with a temperature at daylight of 25°, and at sunrise of 24°. The early morning was very clear, and the stars bright; but, as usual since we are on the Columbia, clouds formed irrunediately wtth the rising sen. The day continued fine, the east being covered with srattered clouds, but the west remaining clear; showing the remarkable cone-like peak of Nlonnt Hood brightly drawn against the sky. This was in view aU day in the south west, but no other peaks of the range were visible. Our road was a bad one, of very loose deep sand. We met on the way a party of Indians unusually well dressed, weari11g clothes of civilized texture and form. They appeared intelligent, and, in our slight intercourse, impressed me with the belief that they posscs--ed some aptitude for acquiring languages. We continued to travel along the river, the strean1 being interspersed with many sand bars (it being the seasou of low water) and with many islands, and an apparently good navigation. Small willows were the only wood; rock and sand the prominent geological feature. The rock of this section is a very compact and tough basalt, occurriug in strata which have the appeurauce of being broken into fragments, assnming the form of columnar hills, and appearing always in escarpments, with the broken fragments strewed at the base aud over the adjoining country. We made a Jato encampmeut on the ri vcr, and used to-uight purshia tridentata for fire wood. Among the rocks which formed the bank, was very good green grass. Latitude 45° 44' 2 3 ", longitude 119° 4 5' 09 ". November I.-Mount llood is glowing iu the sunlight this morning, and the air is pleasant, with a temperature of 38°. 'V e continued down the river, and, passi11g through a pretty green valley, bounded by high precipi· tous rocks, cncmnped at the lower end. On the right shore, tho banks of the Columbia arc very high and steep; the river is 1,690 feet broad, and dark bluffs of rock give it a picturesque appearance. November 2.-Thc river here entered among blnff:, leaviug no longer room for a road; and we accordingly left it, and took a more jn\and way among the river bills; on which we had no sooner entered, than we found a ~rP.at improv<>lnent in the country. The sand had disappeared, and the so1l was good, anJ covered with excellent grass, although the surface was broken into high hills, with uncommonly dP.cp valleys. At noon we crossed John Day's river, a clear and beautiful strean1, with a swift current and a bed of roBed stones. It is sunk in a deep valley, which is ciJaracteristic of all the streatns in this region; and the hill we descended to reach it well deserves the name of mountain. Some of the emigrants had encamped on ~he river, and others at the summit of the farther l1ill, the ascent of whtch had probably cost their wagons a day's labor; antl others agaiu had halted for the night a few miles bryond, where they had slept without Water. We aL.o encamped in a grassy hollow without water· but as we had been forewarned of this privation by the guide, the animals had alL ~een watered at the river, and we had brought with n ' a sufficient quantity iOT the night. , November 3.-A ftcr two hours' riJe through a fertile, hi II y couu try, covered as all the upln ud here appears to be with good green grass, W<' dcscen< led again iuto the river bottom, along which we rosu mcd our . t erile roa<l, and in about four n1iles reached tl H~ ford of the Fall river, (Rivie1'e |
