Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/71

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TRIBUTARIES OF THE LOWER COLUMBIA.
65

have avenged the insult, had they not been convinced of its accidental occurrence. Memelose Illihee is the name which they gave to their burial grounds. Freely translated, it means Spirit country.

The Cowlitz is a small river, though navigable for twenty miles when the water is high enough, and about half that distance, at all times. It rises in Mount St. Helen, and runs, westwardly, for some distance, when it turns abruptly to the south. The valley of the Cowlitz is small, being not more than twenty miles long, and four or five wide. It is heavily timbered, except for a few miles above its mouth, where the rich alluvial bottom-lands are cleared and cultivated. No finer soil could possibly exist than this in the Cowlitz Valley. A few years ago, however, the town of Monticello, four miles from the Columbia, was all swept away in a flood. It has been replaced by a fresher edition of its former self, however, and looks as cheerful and ambitious as if it knew there could be no second deluge. Opposite Monticello is the old Insane Asylum for Washington Territory, in a location admirably adapted to confirm any incipient cases that may have appeared there. The asylum has recently been removed to Steilacoom, on the Sound—a very proper and delightful location.

This portion of the Cowlitz Valley does not depend alone upon its fertility for its future importance. There are extensive deposits of coal in the mountains which border the river, besides other mineral deposits which the North Pacific Railroad and an increase of population will eventually bring into notice. There is, too, an almost inexhaustible supply of the finest fir and cedar upon the mountains which hem it in.

The Cowlitz River, as might be conjectured, is a