“At the extremity of this basin stood a high black rock, which, rising perpendicularly from the right shore, seemed to run wholly across the river:  so totally, indeed, did it appear to stop the passage, that we could not see where the water escaped, except that the current was seemingly drawn with more than usual velocity to the left of the rock, where was heard a great roaring.  We landed at the huts of the Indians, who went with us to the top of the rock, from which we had a view of all the difficulties of the channel.  We were now no longer at a loss to account for the rising of the river at the falls; for this tremendous rock was seen stretching across the river, to meet the high hills on the left shore, leaving a channel of only forty-five yards wide, through which the whole body of the Columbia pressed its way.  The water, thus forced into so narrow a passage, was thrown into whirls, and swelled and boiled in every part with the wildest agitation.  But the alternative of carrying the boats over this high rock was almost impossible in our present situation; and as the chief danger seemed to be, not from any obstructions in the channel, but from the great waves and whirlpools, we resolved to attempt the passage, in the hope of being able, by dexterous steering, to descend in safety.  This we undertook, and with great care were able to get through, to the astonishment of the Indians in the huts we had just passed, who now collected to see us from the top of the rock.  The channel continued thus confined for the space of about half a mile, when the rock ceased.  We passed a single Indian hut at the foot of it, where the river again enlarges to the width of two hundred yards, and at the distance of a mile and a half stopped to view a very bad rapid; this is formed by two rocky islands which divide the channel, the lower and larger of which is in the middle of the river.  The appearance of this place was so unpromising that we unloaded all the most valuable articles, such as guns, ammunition, our papers, etc., and sent them by land, with all the men that could not swim, to the extremity of these rapids.  We then descended with the canoes, two at a time; though the canoes took in some water, we all went through safely; after which we made two miles, stopped in a deep bend of the river toward the right, and camped a little above a large village of twenty-one houses.  Here we landed; and as it was late before all the canoes joined us, we were obliged to remain this evening, the difficulties of the navigation having permitted us to make only six miles.”

They were then among the Echeloots, a tribe of the Upper Chinooks, now nearly extinct.  The white men were much interested in the houses of these people, which, their journal set forth, were “the first wooden buildings seen since leaving the Illinois country.”  This is the manner of their construction:—­