144 T. C. ELLIOTT
disposition of the neighbouring tribes. At the lower end of the portage we intended to dine on salmon, which we had procured from the Indians; but, after cooking it, we felt so incommoded by the crowd, that we pushed off to eat our dinner, while we were drifting down the river. Our meal was brought to an abrupt termination by our having to run down Les Petites Dalles Rapid. Some Indians on the bank were watching, spear in hand, for salmon ; and so intent were they on their occupation, that they never even raised their eyes to look at us, as we flew past them.
"A short space of smooth water, like the calm that precedes the storm, brought us to Les Dalles or the Long Narrows a spot which, with its treacherous savages of former days and its whirling torrents, might once have, been considered as embodying the Scylla and the Charybdis of these regions. At the entrance of the gorge, the river is suddenly contracted to one-third of its width by perpendicular walls, while the surges, thus dammed up, struggle with each other to dash along through its narrow bed. Our guide, having surveyed the state of the rapid, determined to run it, recommending to us, how- ever, to walk across the portage in order to lighten our craft."
Three distinct companies were engaged in the fur business on the Columbia: The Pacific Fur Company controlled by Mr. Astor during 1811-12 and part of 1813; the North-West Com- pany of Montreal during 1814-1820, and the Hudson's Bay Company of London during 1821 to June 14th, 1860, at Van- couver but at Colville, Washington, until 1872. During a part of this period Vancouver, Washington, was the metropolis of the Pacific Coast : Yerba Buena on San Francisco Bay, as well as Sitka in Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands drew their flour, lumber and other supplies from Vancouver. For many years the Hudson's Bay Company occupied the position of the first monopoly to exist on the Columbia River.
And there was one alleged or would-be fur trader who has left a good account of the Dalles-Celilo portage, Mr. Nathaniel J. Wyeth, an ice dealer from the cultured city of Cambridge,
