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1 [[circled]] Mem. In all cases by the right or left bank of a river. I mean the right or left proper-i.e. Descending I assume the starting point to be the left bank at the Priests rapids. From this point to Okanogan the shortest and best route for travelling with horses is by striking off from the Columbia some 6 or 7 miles above the rapids to the "Grand Coulee", a natural ravine which cuts across the bend of the Columbia and again approaches close to the river below the Spokan Forks. To reach Okanogan the trail leaves the Coulee a short distance below a small lake called the Lac a l'eau Bleue one of the few watering stations in that extensive ravine. This trail (the ordinary travelled road) skirting the Columbia a few miles above Okinagan. The "Grande Coulee" presents the appearance of what might be imagined to be the dried up bed of a river, say of the Columbia diverted by some extraordinary convulsion of nature at some long bygone period. It furnishes an excellent line of communication entirely free from obstacles for ordinary purposes. For a telegraph line it is however not suitable from the entire absense of wood for posts. Water is only found in several spots at very long intervals.