Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean: Vol. 1, Pt. 2

TOPOGRAPHICAL REPORT ON WESTERN DIVISION.
The basalt in these walls is columnar. A range of high bleak hills (the continuation of the
divide) is on the right of the trail, and about two miles from it. For the last five miles the
country is rough, broken, barren, God-forsaken, and desolate. Off to the southeast it presents the
same dreary, desolate appearance. From Wah-wuk-chic river to the forks of the Sahpenis the
country is covered with open pine woods, timber large, and no underbrush; fine grass grows
in the woods throughout this distance. The Sahpenis is thirty-five feet wide anid two feet deep,
ford good; this river has no valley at or above the ford, but the basaltic spur ceases on the left
bank half a mile below, and the valley widens out into a low, sandy, gravelly plateau several
miles wide.
A second streani, the Simkwee, comes into this valley from the northwest, and unites with
the Sahpenis four miles below, forming the Pises river. The distance between these streams
along the trail is three miles. The intermediate country is filled with arroyas, and has the
appearance of being swept over in the wet season. Its soil is very sandy and gravelly; wild sage
and wild rye grow upon it. A little cotton-wood and maple grow in the valley of the Simkwee,
and some wide-spreading and scrubby white-oak along the banks of the Sahpenis. The Simkwee
is twenity-five feet wide and eighteen inches or two feet deep; current rapid-ford good. From
the crossing of the Simkwee the trail runs nearly north for eight miles, to the Atahnam, crossing
a spur running to the east. This spur, and the one before reaching the Sahpenis, are the first
of a series of radiating spurs which run off to the east from the main range of the Cascade
mountains, between and separating the several branches of the Yakima. These spurs, or
ranges, proceed to the eastward far beyond the trail, and fall off and lose themselves in the
wide, worthless sage barrens along the Columbia river. This is a high, barren, and basaltic
spur; the slope towards Simkwee and the summit being perfectly covered with sharp, angular
fragments of loose, broken lava of all sizes, rendering the travelling hard upon animals. The
slope towards the Atahnam is more earthy; ascent and descent abrupt. The Atahnam is a rapid
stream, forty feet wide and two and a half deep. The Atahnam has a valley of one quarter to
half a mile wide at the ford, but the river is very crooked, and cuts it up, by its transverse
crossings, into small, worthless patches. There are columnar basaltic walls on each side of it
about thirty feet high, with high, rutted, earthy, and sandy hills piled on top of them. From the
ford the trail bears to the east through the valley for three miles, to the Atahnam mission. Up
to this point the valley is similar to that described at the ford; but below it the basaltic walls
cease as the valley widens out. Thence the trail runs nearly north for about thirty-seven miles,
to Ketetas, on the Yakima, crossing the Kwiwichess, Nahchess, Wenass, and Entinum, at
intervals of seven, ten, seventeen, and twenty-seven miles, respectively. Between the mission
and the Kwiwichess there is a high spur almost destitute of vegetation, and covered with
immense fields of small, broken lava; ascent and descent pretty abrupt, and the top or summit is
a rolling, broken plateau. The Kwiwichess is a small brook, from ten to fifteen feet wide; it forks
a quarter of a mile above the ford. Its valley is a sort of basin, surrounded and terminated by
the mountain on the west, and about three mniles from the trail, and widening towards the east
until it reaches the Yakima. A little willow and aspen grow upon its banks, and there is good
grass in the valley. A sharp spur of the Cascades runs between the Kwiwichess and the
Nahchess. Many large masses of crumbling columnar basalt occur upon it. The trail, however,
is good. The descent to the Nahchess valley is quite abrupt and rocky. Fine grass grows
upon this range. The valley of the Nahchess is from two to three miles wide at the point of
crossing it, but widens towards its junction with the Yakima. It is very much cut up by the
crookedness of the river. Wild-cherry scrub, cotton-wood, balm of Gilead, and aspen, grow
upon its banks. The river is seventy feet wide, but is one hundred yards wide at this point in
the rainy season; it is three feet deep, and the bottom is filled with water-worn pebbles; current
rapid, with great fall. In the hills on the north of the valley of this river is white, stratified sandstone. The country between this river and the Wenass is over a high, rolling table-land, covered
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