At The Point
Reached The River Is Confined, For A Space Of About Fourteen Miles,
To Narrow Channels And Rocky Falls.
The Long Narrows
are now known as the Dalles.
The word "dalles" is French,
and signifies flagstones, such as are used for sidewalks.
Many of the rocks in these narrows are nearly flat on top,
and even the precipitous banks look like walls of rock.
At the upper end of the rapids, or dalles, is Celilo City,
and at the lower end is Dalles City, sometimes known as
"The Dalles." Both of these places are in Oregon; the total fall
of the water from Celilo to the Dalles is over eighty feet.
Navigation of these rapids is impossible. As the explorers had
no further use for their pirogues, they broke them up for fuel.
The merchandise was laboriously carried around on the river bank.
They were able to buy four horses from the Skilloots for which
they paid well in goods. It was now nearly time for the salmon
to begin to run, and under date of April 19 the journal
has this entry: -
"The whole village was filled with rejoicing to-day at having caught
a single salmon, which was considered as the harbinger of vast
quantities in four or five days. In order to hasten their arrival
the Indians, according to custom, dressed the fish and cut it into
small pieces, one of which was given to each child in the village.
In the good humor excited by this occurrence they parted,
though reluctantly, with four other horses, for which we gave
them two kettles, reserving only a single small one for a mess
of eight men.
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