The Last Stage Of The Columbia
On the thirteenth of April the party reached the series of falls and rapids which they called the Long Narrows. At the point reached the river is confined, for a space of about fourteen miles, to narrow channels and rocky falls. The Long Narrows are now known as the Dalles. The word "dalles" is French, and signifies flagstones, such as are used for sidewalks. Many of the rocks in these narrows are nearly flat on top, and even the precipitous banks look like walls of rock. At the upper end of the rapids, or dalles, is Celilo City, and at the lower end is Dalles City, sometimes known as "The Dalles." Both of these places are in Oregon; the total fall of the water from Celilo to the Dalles is over eighty feet. Navigation of these rapids is impossible. As the explorers had no further use for their pirogues, they broke them up for fuel. The merchandise was laboriously carried around on the river bank. They were able to buy four horses from the Skilloots for which they paid well in goods. It was now nearly time for the salmon to begin to run, and under date of April 19 the journal has this entry:--