friendly a part.[60] He accosted us with the utmost kindness, and invited us to return with him to Fort Astoria, of which he is the Superintendant, that his wife and children might have the pleasure of seeing us. Persuaded, that after so tedious a voyage, the visit would be agreeable to all parties, I readily consented. Whilst this hospitable family were preparing dinner we made a little excursion into the neighboring forest. We were in admiration of the immense height and prodigious {74} bulk of the fir trees, many of which were two hundred feet high, and four and a half in diameter. We beheld one which measured forty-two feet in circumference.
After a ramble of two hours, Mr. Burney re-conducted us to the fort.
In a second promenade several of our company greatly admired the tombs of the savage. The deceased is placed in a sort of canoe, or hollow trunk of a tree; the body is then covered with mats or skins; and the savage entombing consists in thus suspending the corpse to the branches of trees, or exposing it on the banks of the river. In one place we saw about twelve of these sepulchres; they are ordinarily found in places of difficult access, the better to secure them from the rapine of wild beasts.[61] Not far from this cemetery one of our fathers, more curious than the others, wandered a little distance into the woods; he speedily hastened back, apparently in a panic, saying that he had seen the muzzle of a bear, which did not look very tame.
I set out for Fort Vancouver the 2d August, wishing to reach there before my companions, that I might inform
