river runs from these falls to the Cascades in one bed of solid Basaltic Rock, in many places, and in fact, amost of the way, they rise I should think, some six hundred to two thousand feet above the water, there being but a very few places where it can be visited. The worst of our road was from about the American Falls. All the way on, south of the Snake, the road runs over this basaltic rock, and a kind of volcanic ashes, or decomposed rock, which is nothing but dust,[1] and it is from 3 to 6 inches deep all of the way, enough to sufocate man and beast. We crosed the Snake at Salmon Falls to the north side and back again at Fort Boysse. Were I coming again I think I should keep on the south side, though there is less water than on the north side. At Salmon Falls one of my big oxen gave out and I sold him for $12. his mate, belonging to Kinsman, was taken lame on big Sandy and he sold him, so it left me with an od ox, this one was taken lame on Green River, and never got over it. Here we got the first taste of Salmon, and you had better think we feasted. We get them of the Indians, you can trade amost any thing for them but money, that they wont have, they will weigh from 10. to 25 pounds, before they are dressed, and I got one at John Days River that I should think would weigh 40 or 45 pounds. My Bacon gave out just the other side of Ft. Hall, my Flour about 50 or 60 miles the other side of Ft. Boysse, the first I got, cost 10 cents pr pound, at the Fort I got about 25 lbs for $2.00 at the Grand Ronde it cost me $5 for 10 pounds. Here we met with a man from this place Mr. Hiram Smith[2]
- ↑ Pioneer narratives frequently speak of the discomfort due to the dust. A recent book says "So heavily traveled were the trails as they passed through the desert valley of the Snake, that the wheels of the wagons, as they cut deep into the dry volcanic ash that forms a rich soil, sent up great volumes of dust that was later carried away by the west wind; and the Old Oregon Trail in many places was a depression four or five feet deep;" C. S. Walgamott, Six Decades Back, 127.
- ↑ Hiram Smith came to Oregon from Dansville, Ohio, in 1845, but returned to the states the following year, and came out again in 1851. He was in the mercantile business in Portland, but it was not profitable. He drove out on the plains with provisions to meet incoming emigrant trains, and disposed of whatever goods he could at reasonable prices, but cash was lacking in many cases and it was unprofitable also. He died in San Francisco, January 17, 1870; Bancroft, History of Oregon, I, 527.
