Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/350

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308
Fred S. Perrine

from the same number of doors, the houses running apparently with the river. These Indians called Clowewallas are numerous. We put ashore on a steep, slippery bank of grass, where we could find no wood fit to make a fire, all of it being wet and green. Mr. Matthews crossed over to purchase dogs * * * Sunday, Jan. 23, 1814.At dawn we went up to the falls, * * * didnot set out till 7 A. M ., unloaded on the right hand side and carried 600 paces over a rugged portage, hemmed in by a range of steep rocks, so close to the river as in some places scarcely to leave a passage, especially near the upper end where the men found it difficult to get the canoe through. * * * A little above the portage, on the spot where formerly a village stood, remains of the dead are still seen; this place is bounded by a high range of perpendicular rocks, over which now rushes a considerable fall of water after the late heavy rains."

"About a mile above the portage, on the right, a small but rapid stream comes in.[1]

"About five miles above the falls we passed the last rocky islands and shores we saw on the river; one mile higher we passed a low willow island,[2] where the current became more slack and smooth.

"At eleven A. M . we passed a small stream on the left, called by our people Pudding River.[3]

"At 2 PM. noticed some wooden canoes on the left hand side, at the foot of a bank about 30 feet high, up which was a winding path. We, of course, supposed our people to have built somewhere near this place, though none of us knew exactly where they were. Ascending the hill and passing through a wood for 300 paces, I came to a delightful prairie, on which I saw a house about 150 paces off. This plain is about two miles long' and quarter of a mile broad; along the middle runs a rising ground from E. to W., on which the house is situated. Here I found Mr. Wm. Henry in charge.

"Jan. 24, 1814. At twelve I crossed the river in company with Wm. Henry, Stuart and Matthews to look for a proper place to build, about two miles further up the river, as the present situation is overflowed at high water,

  1. ↑ Tualitin River.
  2. ↑ Opposite New Era.
  3. ↑ This is the Molalla River into which Pudding River flows.
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