[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.