FOOTNOTES:
[223] For a brief sketch of Pambrun see our volume xxi, p. 280, note 74. In her letters Mrs. Whitman speaks repeatedly of kindness received from this Hudson's Bay Company factor, whose death she deplores. See Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions, 1891, pp. 88, 103, 139, 140.—Ed.
[224] The general trend of the river is west; just above John Day's River, in Gilliam County, there is a bend to the north-west, which is the point Farnham had reached.—Ed.
[225] Farnham evidently thought that he saw Mount St. Helens (see our volume vi, p. 246, note 50), which he here calls Mount Washington, although later giving it the title of Mount Adams (see our volume xxix, note 32—Farnham). Lewis and Clark made a similar mistake—see Original Journals, iii, p. 135. What our traveller saw was the present Mount Adams, for which see note 225, below.—Ed.
[226] All early travellers speak of the attempts of the Indians, in their designation of the neighborhood, to express the sound of the falling waters. Lewis and Clark speak of it as "tumm;" according to Ross (our volume vii, p. 133), it was "Lowhum." The Shutes (Des Chutes) is another name for the Great Falls of the Columbia.—Ed.
[227] The ordinary meaning of the word "dalles" is paving stones; but by the Canadian French it was also used to indicate a channel which carried off the waters dammed above—hence any form of confined, swiftly-flowing waters. Lewis and Clark spoke of these chasms through which the Columbia rushes as the Long and Short Narrows; by Farnham's time the term "Dalles" had become the ordinary appellation.—Ed.
[228] For the Chinook see Franchère's Narrative in our volume vi, p. 240, note 40.—Ed.
[229] Mount Adams (9570 feet) is one of the volcanic peaks of the Cascade Range in Klickitat County, Washington, about thirty miles east of Mount St. Helens. Both these volcanoes were in a state of eruption in 1842-43.—Ed.
[230] For Daniel Lee see Townsend's Narrative in our volume xxi, p. 138, note 13. H. K. W. Perkins came out to re-inforce the Methodist mission in September, 1837, and not long afterwards married Elvira Johnson, who had preceded him a few months. They joined with Daniel Lee in establing the Dalles mission in 1838, where they labored with varying success until about 1845, then returning to the "states." Mrs. Whitman spent the winter of 1842-43 at this mission, during her husband's absence. The mission house was located on the south bank of the river, just below the Long Narrows, near an Indian village called Kaclasco; the station was named Wascopum. See p. 388, note 208, in De Smet's Letters, our volume xxvii.—Ed.
[231] Farnham has not exaggerated the bad reputation of the Indians at the Dalles. Lewis and Clark felt that they owed their lives at this point to the strength of their party, and came nearer to having a skirmish with the natives of that locality than elsewhere on the Columbia waters. See also Ross's Oregon Settlers in our volume vii, pp. 126-131, and Franchère's Narrative, in our volume vi, pp. 274-276.—Ed.
[232] Daniel G. Brinton, Myths of the New World (Philadelphia, 1896), p. 298, considers that belief in transmigration is but little known among North American Indians. What traces may be found are due to totemic influence, and probably relate to reversion to the primitive spirit represented by the clan animal, rather than to transmigration into living animals. This statement of Farnham's would appear to have been suggested by totem poles near the graves.—Ed.
[233] The well-known Sepulchre Island, known in the native tongue as "Memaloose" (the abode of the dead). Many of the islands in the Columbia were used for burial; this in particular; about three miles below the mouth of Klickitat River, was noted by Lewis and Clark, who found erected thereupon thirteen large box-tombs—see Original Journals, iii, p. 170; iv, p. 283. In 1884 this island became the place of sepulchre for an Oregon pioneer, Vic Trevitt, whose monument has become a prominent landmark.—Ed.
[234] The Indians held in great reverence the tombs and the bones therein contained, and were quick to take vengeance for any spoliation. The flattened skulls always were an object of curiosity to whites, and many were surreptitiously carried away by the latter. See Townsend's experience in our volume xxi, pp. 338, 339.—Ed.
[235] Either one of the Phocidæ, or the Zalophus californianus, well known on the Pacific coast; both of these are hair seals.—Ed.
[236] For this region, now known as South Park, see ante, p. [199], note 123.—Ed.
[237] The Cascades, with their portage path, were to all early travellers the best-known features of the lower Columbia. See Lewis and Clark, Original Journals, iii, pp. 179-185; Ross's Oregon Settlers in our volume vii, pp. 121-125; and Townsend's Narrative in our volume xxi, pp. 291-293.—Ed.
[238] For the varieties of pine and other terebinthine (turpentine producing) trees of the North-west Coast, see Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, iv, pp. 41-57, 84, 85, with identifications by Charles V. Piper, a naturalist familiar with the region.—Ed.
[239] This project of a canal was undertaken by the United States government in 1878, when it was found that the difficulties were so great that the work had no counterpart. However, after numerous modifications, a canal was built on the south (Oregon) side of the river, with a great steel lock at the upper Cascades. The work was opened for navigation in November, 1896, but was not wholly completed until 1900. Over four million dollars has been spent on this important improvement. See the chief engineer's Report in House Docs., 56 Cong., 1 sess., viii, pp. 584-586.—Ed.
[240] For Dr. John McLoughlin, see our volume xxi, p. 296, note 81.—Ed.
[241] Probably the one now known as Trout Lake. Lewis and Clark speak of the "ponds" encountered in passing over the portage path.—Ed.
[242] The description of this place tallies well with that given by Lewis and Clark; see Original Journals, iii, pp. 178, 179.—Ed.
[243] Cyrus Shepard, who came out (1834) with the first missionary party (see our volume xxi, p. 138, note 13), was a valuable member of the Methodist mission, where he had chief charge of the Indian manual training school. In 1837 his fiancée, Susan Downing, came from the states, and they were married in July of that year. His death occurred at the mission in 1840.
Mrs. Elijah White came to Oregon with her husband, a missionary physician, in May, 1837.—Ed.
[244] Of the many beautiful falls on this part of the river the Horsetail, Multnomah, Bridal Veil, and Latourell are notable; probably the Bridal Veil is the most beautiful, but the Multnomah may be the cascade here noted.—Ed.
[245] For a brief sketch of Fort Vancouver see our volume xxi, p. 297, note 82. Farnham gives a detailed description in our volume xxix.—Ed.
[246] Sir James Douglas was born (1803) in British Guiana. Taken to Scotland when a child, he left in order to enter the Canadian fur-trade, and met Dr. John McLoughlin at Fort William, on Lake Superior. McLoughlin persuaded the youth to accompany him to the Pacific, where (1824) he was in service at Fort St. James under Factor Connelly, whose daughter Douglas married. For some years he was in charge of Fort St. James, being summoned (1828) to Vancouver, where he became second in command. Promoted to be chief trader (1830) and chief factor two years later, he was much employed in visits of inspection and in building new posts. In 1841-42 he went on a diplomatic and trading embassy to California. In 1843 Fort Victoria was built under his direction. Upon Dr. McLoughlin's resignation (1845), Douglas became his successor as head of the Hudson's Bay Company's interests on the Pacific, removing from Fort Vancouver to Victoria in 1849. There he continued to rule until his resignation from the Company (1859), when the British government appointed him governor of the newly-erected province of British Columbia, an office which he held until 1864, being in the preceding year knighted for his services. After release from official duties, Sir James visited Europe, returning to his home in Victoria, where he died August 2, 1877.—Ed.