ful and interesting, is yet, like all the other rivers in Oregon, almost an unbroken succession of rapids, falls and cascades, and of course ill-adapted in its present condition to the purposes of navigation. The two upper valleys of the Coeur d'Alene are beautiful, and of a rich mould; they are watered by two deep forks, running into the Cceur d'Alene lake, a fine sheet of water of about thirty miles in length by four or five broad, from which the river Spokan derives its source. I called the two upper forks the St. Joseph's and the St. Ignatius. They are formed by innumerable torrents descending from the Cceur d'Alene Mountains, a chain of the Rocky Mountains. The two upper valleys are about sixty or eighty miles long, and four or eight
miles broad. I counted upward of forty little lakes in them. The whole neighborhood of the Spokan river affords very abundant grazing, and in many sections is tolerably well timbered with pines of different species.
On leaving the river we ascended by a steep Indian path. A few miles' ride across a pine forest brings you to a beautiful valley, leading to Colville, agreeably diversified by plains and forests, hememed in by high wooded mountains, and by huge picturesque rocks towering their lofty heads over all the rest. Fountains and rivulets are here very
numerous. After about thirty miles we arrived at the foot of the Kalispel mountain, in the neighborhood of St. Francis Regis, where already about seventy metis or half-breeds have collected to settle permanently. Several of them accompanied me across the mountain, the height of which
is about 5,000 feet above the level of the plain. Its access is very easy on the western side; on the. eastern, the narrow path winds its snake-like course through a steep and dense forest. After a march of about eight hours we arrived at the beautiful Kalispel Bay, on the margin of -Lake De Boey, almost in sight of the Reduction of St. Ignatius.My letter to Mrs. Parmentier,9 which I insert here, will make you acquainted with the whole history of that mission.
9 See p. 457•