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JLa

OEEGON TERRITORY,

CONSISTING OF A BRIEF

DESCEIPTION OF THE COUNTRY

AMD ITS

PRODUCTIONS;

I\K '^/J^K ■ AND OF THE HABITS AND MANNERS

OF THS

NATIVE INDIAN TRIBES.

fVITH A MAP OF THE TERRITORY.

LONDON:

M. A. NATTALI, 23, BEDFORD STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.

1846.

(* '

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London : Printed by Willi am Clowxs and Sons, Stamford-street.

rs, Stamfoid-stieet.

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

The transition, from our acknowledged and defined
possessions upon the eastern side of the large con-
tinent of North America to the, at present, deba-
table land on its western shores, is, although phy-
sically difficult from the primitive condition of
the vast tract of country which intervenes, easy

enough for geographical and mental survey ; for
I we have merely to glance our eye across the map,
we look down upon a small portion of the
horld's surface, claimed, upon the plea of original
Idiscovery, by two mighty nations, whose har-
Imony, and with it possibly that of the whole civi-
liised world, its arrogated possession has threatened
Ito disturb. As a portion of the belt with which
Iwe girdle the northern region of that continent, it
Iwill not be considered out of place to add to the
Ipresent volume a brief and rapid description of the

Duntry, which has recently excited such absorbing
interest upon bodi sides of the Atlantic, and whick
p designated as the Oregon territory, from the cir-
cumstance of the waters of the large river which
[beirs the name of Oregon, or Columbia, either in

■I

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2 THE OREGON TERRITORY.

its main stream, or by its tributaries, forming the
natural drain of, and watering in their undulating
and serpentine course, the country through which
they flow. In the absence of any strictly defined
limits to this territory, and for the sake of tempo-
rary convenience, we may assume its northern and
southern boundaries to be formed by the 53° and
42* parallels of northern latitude, within which the
sources of the streams of this large confluence of
waters spring. To the west its natural boundary
is the Pacific Ocean, and to the east it presents a
lofty barrier in the Rocky Mountains and their
snow-clad and inhospitable peaks, which cut off
communication, except through occasional defiles
difficult to thread, from the plains and prairies
further eastward, watered by the Saskatchawan, and
the Missouri. This mountain range is the Northern
continuation of the enormous chain which runs,
but slightly deviating, from north to south through
the entire continent of America, and, as it were, con-
stituting it an organic whole by means of this ver-
tebral column, without which, doubtless, South
. America would have swung off into the great Ocean
as a vast island, a counterbalance to its antipodal
parallelism, New Holland. The area circumscribed
by this boundary contains about 400,000 square
miles (a space thus somewhat equal to twice the
dimensions of France) of considerably varied sur-
face, but in general character mountainous, with
intervening high upland pastures, and table-land
prairies. It is well watered, chiefly by the tribu-

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

laries of the great Columbia river, and its tem-
I perature, although varying considerably, as must
necessarily be the case in such an extensive tract, is
Lufficiently mild during its winters to admit of
cattle finding ah adequate supply of green pasture
throughout their duration.

The coast, from its northern extremity, as far
I couth as the parallel 48° N., is considerably indented
and fringed with creeks, and friths, and straits,
indicating the incessant action of the water upon
the main land by the bead-like chain of islands
Aat thus far skirt it, and which thus form a close
cover for the denizens of the main in the succession
of coves and channels, and point to one valuable and
prolific source for the exercise of the industry and
commerce of the future occupants of the adja ,'cnt
land. The most northerly of these islands is Que;, ii
Charlotte's, in the shape of a long lozenge, and
which is more than 100 miles in length, and 60
broad at its widest part, and situated at the northern
extremity of the boundary, but separated from the
main land by a distance greater than its extremest
breadth. A hundred miles further south, and trend-
ing to the coast, which laps round its southern apex,
jaqd separated therefrom by the strait known by

sname of its first discoverer, Juan de Fuca, lies

I Vancouver's Island, extending rather more than

200 miles south and about 35 miles broad, and of

I learly equal diameter throughout. Upon the wes-

em coast of this large Island lies Nootka sound,

iflown from the period of its discovery by Cook.

I II

ft;

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i'' »

4 THE OREGON TERRITORY.

This large Island is rich and versatile in its pic.
turesque beauty and romantic scenery, being densely
timbered, for even its very highest hills are covered
to the top with luxuriant woods which spread down-
wards to the very margin of the ocean, but varied
with wide plains and verdurous prairies, whicii
have been described as even more fertile than the
paradise of Oregon, the Walleraette valley, lying
between the Columbia and the Umqua. At its
northern extremity coal has been found, and ores of
silver, copper, and iron have been discovered
amongst its hills. The salubrity of its climate, and
its many natural advantages, have induced the Hud-
son's Bay Company to establish here their fort and
settlement named Victoria, in honour of our gra-
cious Queen. The broad arm of the sea, or strait,
which separates this island from the main, was
originally discovered in its south-western entrance
by the Greek voyager, Juan de Fuca, but it was
first navigated throughout its whole course by Van-
couver between 1792 and 1794, who closely in-
spected the sounds, gulfs, and archipelagos, with
which it abounds, the most interesting of which lie
off from the Straits of Fuca, bearing south and east,
and are Admiralty Sound, Puget's Sound, running
40 miles south of the parent strait. Hood's Canal, and
Ports Hudson and Discovery. The islands stud-
ding the angle of the strait whence these waters
turn off are described as being luxuriantly beauti-
ful in their vegetation, and have been named in
accordance with the features which most forcibly

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

struck the original discoverers thus we have Straw-
berry Cove, Cypress Island, and others as signi-
ficantly characterized. Some abound in deer, and
present the appearance of parks decorated with
clumps of trees as elegantly distributed as by the
hand of art studying decoration, thus proving the
veracity of Nature's apostle and apologist, who

*' Nature is made better by no mean ;
But Nature makes that mean."

For here Nature was in genuine deshabille and
wholly innocent of man's altering hand. It is into
the northern arm of the Straits of Fuca, different
portions of which have received different names
although but the same branch of the sea, and at the
soutiiern extremity of that part of the Strait
called the Gulf of Georgia, that Frazer's River,
navigable for light craft to a • considerable dis-
tance, debouches, emptying there the waters it has
accumulated in its southern course, running parallel
with the northern arm of its great twin sister the
Columbia River — the only two considerable rivers,
either with respect to the length of their course, or
to the body of water they convey to the Ocean, of
tiiose of the American Continent which flow into
the Pacific. The shores of the mainland skirting
this strait, but especially most northerly, alternate
between high rocky coasts covered with pines and
firs and low sandy sterile dunes, giving it thus an
inhospitable and cheerless aspect; but its waters
abound with a variety of fish, especially sturgeon.

^i'

fffJ^i*

J ■

6 THE OREGON TERRITORY.

and at its extreme northern outlet whales were ob-
served gambolling in the Pacific. Proceediiifj
coastwise southward from the entrance of the Straits
of Fuca, several promontories and headlands jut
forth into the ocean, the most conspicuous of which
is Cape Flattery, which forms the apex of its south-
western extremity. Beyond this we have Cape
Disappointment, the northern boundary of the
estuary of the Columbia, and Cape Foul weather and
Blanco, further south. The whole coast as far as
Cape Mendecino, the northern extremity of Mexico,
presents a range of hills varying in their distance
from the sea, and descending to it either in gradual
slopes, or by spurs from the adjacent coast range
of mountains, which form the several promontories
and bluffs which rise abruptly, and give variation
to its line which occasionally sinks into low sandy
cliffs and beaches.' The uniformity of the line of
land is interrupted only by occasional small rivers
and streams, the chief of which, exclusive of the
Columbia, are the Umqua and the Clammet, the
sources of which are in the proximate range of hills.
The general aspect of this coast as seen from the
sea is that of abundant and luxuriant vegetation,
varying according to its undulation between pas-
ture land and forest.

In reascending the coast for the purpose of
ascertaining its capabilities in a maritime and com-
mercial point of view, which is necessarily de-
pendant upon the harbourage it offers, and the
facilities thence accruing for receiving and shel-

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

terlng vessels of burthen and of large draught, the
first available place is presented by the mouth of
the Columbia River itself, which in the native
name of one of its upper branches, discovered by
Carver, somewhere between 1766 and 1778, sup-
posed, from the indefinite description left, to be that
branch now known as the Flathead, or Clarke's
river, gives the name of Oregon to the whole
territory. The estuary of this river, which empties
itself into the Pacific a little north of the 46th de-
gree, lies so concealed by the bluffs and head-
lands whicb project in opposite directions and lap
across it, thus giving an uninterrupted appearance to
the coast, that although seven miles wide at its ex-
treme outlet between Cape Disappointment, a kind
of peninsula terminating in a steep knoll or pro-
montory, crowned with a forest of pine-trees, and
connected with the mainland by a low and narrow
neck, and Point Adams, which is a flat, sandy-spit
of land, stretching into the ocean, that it was not seen
by Vancouver in 1792, who sailed close to shore,
but was immediately afterwards discovered and
entered by Captain Gray, in the Columbia, the name
of whose vessel has been perpetuated in the name
of the river. Immediately within Cape Disappoint-
ment is a wide open bay, called Baker's Bay, and
terminating at Chenook Point, named from a
neighbouring tribe of Indians. The velocity of the
current of the river, combined with a bar or sand-
bank which stretches across its mouth, and extends
four or five miles into the sea, and over which there

!•

^^.' I

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

is scarcely ever a greater draught than about five
fathoms of water, together with a chain of breakers
upon the bar which check its direct navigation
and nearly block up its entrance, will prevent
its being accessible by vessels of large tonnage.
From various other causes it has been computed
that it cannot be entered more than three months
in every year, and it presents additional uncertainty
from the sand-banks at its entrance, being of a shift-
ing character, and rarely long in the same position.
A succession of sand-banks occupy the centre of
the broad mouth of this river, to a distance of twenty,
five miles upwards ; and these are succeeded by a
chain of islands which extend as far as the entrance of
the Cowlitz River, five and twenty miles still higher;
but it is navigable as far as Point Vancouver,
about a hundred miles from its mouth, where it is
about 600 fathoms wide and six fathoms deep. In
this vicinity its upward navigation also terminates,
owing to the succession of falls its now moun-
tainous course leaps down ; and its tidal variation,
which has a rise and fall of about eight feet at its
mouth, also gradually ceases.

Its course thus far is nearly south-east, but vary-
ing in breadth according to its bays and indenta-
tions. The shores are in some places high and
rocky, with low marshy islands at their feet, subject
to inundation, and covered with willows, poplars,
and other trees that love an alluvial soil. Some-
times the mountains recede and give place to beau-
tiful plains and noble forests. Whilst the river

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

;han about five
'ain of breakers
|ect navigation,
will prevent
large tonnage,
leen computed
three months
[nal uncertainty
being of a shift.
3 same position.
the centre of
ance of twenty,
succeeded by a
I the entrance of |
les still higher;
nt Vancouver,
ith, where it is
loms deep. In
ilso terminates,
ts now moun-
tidal variation,
ight feet at its

east, but vary-
! and indenta-
Lces high and
r feet, subject
lows, poplars,
soil. Some-
place to beau-
ilst the river

margin is richly fringed with trees of deciduous
foliage, the rough uplands are crowned by majestic
pines and firs of gigantic size, some towering to
the height of between two and three hundred feet,
with proportionate circumference. Out of these
die Indians make their great canoes and pirogues.

We thus find that the chief river of the country
is not navigable for large commercial enterprises ;
and proceeding coastwise from its mouth still
further north, at a distance of about twenty -five
miles, we discover in Gray's Bay a deep inlet,
which being but two miles and a half wide at its
entrance, expands within into a broad bay, nine
miles wide and seven long, which at its eastern ex-
tremity receives the waters of the Chickeeles River,
a small stream that descends from the mountains
which separate the seaward coast from the waters
of Puget's Sound. The same difficulty of shoally
water exists at the entrance of this sheltered cove
which we found at the mouth of the Columbia, the
whole intervening coast being remarkably moun-
tainous and rugged, and we have therefore to sail
8till further north for a safe and available harbour for
shipping. Nothing of this character presents itself
until redescending the Straits of Fuca, when we ap-
proach, near its south-eastern extremity, the two
deep bays discovered by Vancouver in 1792, and
named by him Ports Discovery and Hudson, a short
distance to the west of Hood's Canal. This harbour
is about two miles wide, with an extent of about

ten miles inland, and a depth of water varying from

:■ /

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

twenty-five to thirty fathoms. It has further the
advantage of being covered in front by an island
called Protection Island, of which Vancouver has
given the following description : — He says : " On
landing on the west end, and ascending its eminence,
which was a nearly perpendicular cliff, our atten-
tion was immediately called to a landscape almost
as enchantingly beautiful as the most elegantly
finished pleasure-grounds in Europe. The summit
of this island presented nearly a horizontal surface,
interspersed with some inequalities of ground,
which produced a beautiful variety on an extensive
lawn covered with luxuriant grass, and diversified
with abundance of flowers. To the north-west-
ward was a coppice of pine-trees, and shrubs of
various sorts, that seemed as if it had been planted
for the purpose of protecting from the north-west
winds, this delightful meadow, over which were
promiscuously scattered a few clumps of trees, that
would have puzzled the most ingenious designer
of pleasure-grounds to have arranged more agree-
ably. While we stopped to contemplate these se-
veral beauties of nature, in a prospect no less
pleasing than unexpected, we gathered some goose-
berries and roses in a state of considerable for-
wardness." This was on the 1st of May, 1792,
It was at the same period that he gives us the fol-
lowing pleasing description of the scenery in the
vicinity of Port Discovery, on the mainland:—
"The delightful serenity of the weather greatly
aided the beautiful scenery that was now presented.

LY.

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

as further the
^y an island
Vancouver has
^e says: "On
g its eminence,
■liff, our atten-
idscape almost
lost elegantly
The summit
cental surface,
s of ground,
1 an extensive
md diversified
e north-west-
ind shrubs of
■ been planted
;he north-west
• which were
' of trees, that
ious designer
^ more agree-
late these se-
pect no less
some goose-
iderable for-
May, 1792,
'S us the fol-
5neryin the
mainland :—
ther greatly
V presented.

The surface of the sea was perfectly smooth, and
the country before us presented all that bounteous
nature could be expected to draw into one point of
view. As we had no reason to imagine that this
country had ever been indebted for any of its de-
corations to the hand of man, I could not possibly
believe that any uncultivated country had ever been
discovered exhibit,ing so rich a picture. The land
which interrupted the horizon below the north-west
and north quarters, seemed to be much broken, from
whence its eastern extent, round to south-east, was
bounded by a ridge of snowy mountains, appearing
to be nearly in a north and south direction, on
which Mount Baker rose conspicuously, remarkable
for its height and the snowy mountains that stretch
from its base to the north and south. Between
us and this snowy range, the land, which on the
sea-shore terminated like that we had lately passed,
in low perpendicular cliffs, or on beaches of sand
0? stone, rose here in a very gentle ascent, and was
well covered with a variety of stately forest-trees :
these, however, did not conceal the whole face of
' the country in one uninterrupted wilderness, but
pleasantly clothed its eminences and chequered the
valleys, presenting in many directions extensive
spaces, that wore the appearance of having been
cleared by art, like the beautiful island we had vi-
sited the day before — a picture so pleasing could
not fail to call to our remembrance certain de-
lightful and beloved situations in Old England."
Contiguous to Port Discovery on the east is Port

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

Hudson, another inlet lying between the former
and Hood's Canal, which, with an opening one mile
broad, expands within in a semicircular form towards
the west to a distance of about eight miles, and
within this cavity presents an excellent harbour
with a depth of water averaging twenty fathoms.
Hood's Canal, Puget's Sound, and Admiralty Inlet,
afford each in their capacity and extent, excellent
places for anchorage, but none with the conveniences
for harbourage offered by those we have noticed.

Following the coast northward we do not again
find localities of equal capability for this purpose.
Frazer's river presents the same disadvantage that
we found rendering the navigation of the Columbia
impracticable to vessels of large tonnage in the bar
of sand which crosses its mouth, which appears to be
deposited at the mouth of all these rivers that de-
bouche, running from the eastward, into the Pacific,
and which would seem to arise from the counter-
action the waters of the Pacific offer to their rapid
flow. A further impediment to the harbourage of
the several creeks and inlets, such as Desolation
Sound, Bute's Canal, Loughborough Canal, and
Knight's Canal, &c. is offered by the archipelago of
islands which vessels must necessarily thread to
reach them, and the rapidity of the currents and
depth of water which flow within their channels.
This remark will refer to the whole coast to the
northern frontier of the territory north of Queen
Charlotte's Sound.

Having thus surveyed the coast line of this terri-

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

tory, we shall now return to its opposite frontier,
the all but impassable barrier of the Rocky or Stony
Mountains. We have before observed that this
forms a link of the great chain of the Andes, and
concurrently participates in the peculiarities of
those " Giants of the Western Star." It presents
the same characteristics of igneous origin in its
granitic masses, its gullies, and basaltic rocks, and of
volcanic agency still operating in the adjacent hot-
springs, and salt lakes, and waters, and the occa-
sional eruption of some of the craters of the parallel
cascade range where Mount St. Helen was seen
spouting forth its fire and smoke, and casting its
ashes to a distance of fifty miles.

This rocky and mountainous region has of course
not yet been subjected to the inspection which it
will progressively receive as greater facilities shall
present themselves in the occupation and settlement
of the adjacent country on its western side, which,
from the impulse emigration has taken thitherward,
seems to promise that it will eventually become
inhabited land, although the aridity of climate
arising from the great elevation of the plateaus in
their immediate vicinity does not augur favourably
for its agricultural cultivation, and these fastnesses
will possibly ever continue the exclusive domain
of their aboriginal denizens, the elk, the buffalo,
the argali, antelope, and bear, and their scarcely
more human destroyers, the nomadic hordes of
savages. From the direct observations yet made
I the greatest altitude of these mountains has been

I' ,

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

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found to be about 16,000 feet above the level of
the sea, which is the height of Mount Brown and
Mount Hooker, between the parallels of 50 and 51 ;
and Fremont has calculated the elevation of the
highest peak in the vicinity of the south pass of the
Rocky Mountains which he scaled to be 13,579 feet
above the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But he
considers that some of the peaks of the cascade
range are of still greater height, reaching the pro-
digious elevation of 20,000 feet ; and Mr. Thomp-
son is supposed to have ascertained the elevation of
one to be 25,000. But the extreme elevation of
the great steppes which range along the feet of
the Rocky Mountains take away from the true
height of their peaks, which, as we have shown,
yield to few in the known world in point of real
altitude.

The elevation of the pass itself is 7000 feet above
the sea. In approaching the peaks which form the
crest of this ridge of mountains, Fremont and his
party frequently found little lakes held in the hol-
lows between the mountains ; sometimes when at
high elevations they saw in the valley before them,
and among the hills, a number of lakes of different
levels, some two or three hundred feet above others,
with which they communicate by foaming torrents,
all sending up the roar of their cataracts. It was
on the 13th of August that the highest peak ap-
peared so near that they supposed it would be an
easy day's work to reach it, and that they would be
able to return back to the encampment in the even-

lY.

e the level of
mt Brown and
5 of 50 and 51 ;
evation of the
outh pass of the
) be 13,579 feet
jxico. But he
of the cascade
iching the pro-
id Mr. Thomp.
the elevation of
le elevation of
ng the feet of
from the true
^e have showii,
a point of real

7000 feet above
which form the
remont and his
leld in the hoi-
stimes when at
;y before them,
kes of different
et above others,
aming torrents,
;aracts. It was
^hest peak ap-
t would be an
they would be
snt in the even-

TIIK OREGON TERRITORY.

ing. But the first ridge hid a succession of others,
and the advance was slow ; and when, with great
difiiculty, they had climbed up a rugged acclivity
five hundred feet high, it was to make but a descent
of about the same distance to reach the ascent of a
higher ridge. Every ridge that was surmounted
was supposed would be the last, until they were
involved in the most rugged pi'ecipices, sometimes
passing beneath bridges formed by huge fragments
of granite, and at others clambering over rocks
^ippery with ice and snow. The day was thus
passed in these wearying yet exciting marches, and
without food ; and now, elevated ten thousand feet
above the Gulf of Mexico, they lay down upon the
snow to sleep. They resumed their effort to reach
the summit the following day, having previously ob-
tained food from the camp below. The party soon
came scattered among fields of ice and innume-
rable precipices, each seeking the best path to ascend
the peak. After another day's toil and another
night's rest, they at length reached the snow line,
and then commenced uninterrupted climbing, and
the use of their toes became necessary to assist them
in their further advance. Shortly they reached a
point where the buttress was overhanging, and there
was no other way of surmounting the difficulty than
by passing round one side of it which formed the
face of a vertical precipice several hundred feet
high. A small valley was passed and another ascent
climbed, and the crest was reached. Fremont
sprang in transport upon its summit, yet one step

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

r> \

tfiP''

more would have precipitated him into an immense
snow field five hundred feet below. The crest was
a narrow strip only three feet wide. The barometer
was mounted in the snow of the summit ; a ramrod
was fixed in a crevice, and on it the American flag
was unfurled. No signs of life had been perceived
in these upper regions, and the most profound and
terrible solitude reigned around and forced upon
the mind the great features of the place. Whilst
seated here, a common humble bee, winging its
flight from the eastern valley, alighted on the knee
of one of the men, and was captured and preserved
as th^ only record of organic life observed at these
great altitudes, and in this vast solitude.

Another traveller. Captain Bonneville, thus de-
scribes the ascent of this crest and the magnificent
view from it. After much toil, he reached the
summit of a lofty cliff, but it was only to behold
gigantic peaks rising all around and towering far
into the snowy regions of the atmosphere. Selecting
one which appeared to be the highest, he crossed a
narrow intervening valley, and began to scale it.
He soon found that he had undertaken a tremen-
dous task ; the ascent was so steep and rugged that
he was frequently obliged to clamber on hands and
knees, with his gun slung across his back. Fre-
quently exhausted with fatigue, and dripping with
perspiration, he threw himself upon the snow
and took handfuls of it to allay his parching
thirst ; but ascending still higher, cool breezes
refreshed him, and springing on with fresh ardour,

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

he at length attained the summit. Here a scene
burst upon his view, which for a time astonished
and overwhelmed him with its immensity. He
gtood in fact upon that dividing ridge which the
Indians regard as the crest of the world, and on
each side of which the landscape may be said to
decline to the two cardinal oceans of the globe.
Whichever way he turned his eye it was con-
founded by the vastness and variety of objects.
Beneath him the Rocky Mountains seemed to open
all their secret recesses ; deep solemn valleys, glit-
tering lakes, dreary passes, rugged defiles, and
foaming torrents ; while beyond their savage pre-
ciacts the eye was lost in an almost immeasurable
landscape stretching on every side into dim and
hazy distance, like the expanse of a vast sea.
Whichever way he looked he beheld vast plains
glimmering with reflected sunshine ; mighty
streams wandering on their shining course toward
either ocean ; and snowy mountains, chain beyond
chain, and peak beyond peak, till they melted like
clouds into the horizon. He stood for awhile
gazing upon this scene, lost in a crowd of vague
and indefinite ideas and sensations. A long-drawn
ingpiration at length relieved him from this en-
thralment of the mind, and he began to analyze the
parts of this vast panorama. The enumeration of a
few of its features will give some idea of its col-
lective grandeur and magnificence. The peak he
stood on commanded the whole varied river chain,
which may be considered one immense mountain.

[•A

II-*'

V W

vmr

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

broken into snowy peaks and lateral spurs, and
seamed with narrow valleys^ some of which glit.
tered with silver lakes and gushing streams, the
fountain-heads, as it were, of the mighty tributaries
to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Beyond the
snowy peaks to the south, and far below the moun-
tain range, the Sweet Water river was seen pursuing
its tranquil way through the rugged region of the
Black Hills. In the east the head-waters of Wind
River wandered through a plain, until, mingling in
one powerful current, they forced their way
through the range of Horn Mountains, and were
lost to view. To the north were caught glimpses
of the upper streams of the Yellowstone, the great
tributary of the Missouri. In a north-westerly
direction were seen some of the sources of the
Oregon or Columbia, flowing past the towering
landmarks called the Three Tetons, and pouring
their waters down into the great lava plain ; and
beneath, at his feet, were the Green River, or
Colorado of the West, setting forth on its pil-
grimage to the Gulf of .California ; at first a mere
mountain-torrent, dashing northward over crag and
precipice, in a succession of cascades, and tumbling
into the plain, where, expanding into an ample
river, it circled away to the south, and after alter-
nately shining out and disappearing in the mazes
of the vast landscape, was finally lost in a horizon
of mountains, distinctly discernible through the
purity of the atmosphere encircling this immense
area with their outer range of shadowy peaks

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

faintly marked upon the verge of the horizon. To
descend and extricate himself from the heart of
this rock-piled wilderness was almost as difficult as
to penetrate it. He took his course down the
ravine of a tumbling stream, descending from rock
to rock, and shelf to shelf, between stupendous
cliffs and beetling crags that sprang up to the sky.
Often obliged to cross and recross the rushing tor-
rent as it wound foaming and roaring down its
broken channel, or walled by perpendicular pre-
cipices, and sometimes passing beneath cascades
which pitched from such lofty heights that the
water fell into the stream like heavy rain ; in other
places torrents came tumbling from crag to crag,
dashing into foam and spray, and making tre-
mendous din and uproar.

Within sight thus of this spot are the sources of
several large rivers, viz. the Rio Colorado of the
Gulf of California, and the Columbia in its south
branch, flowing west ; and of the Yellowstone and
the Nebraska, both branches of the Missouri, and
of the Great Missouri itself, flowing east. It is thus
both east and west that this gigantic chain of moun-
tains nourishes, by the percolation of the eternal
snows of its high summits, the waters which on
both sides meander in their huge serpentine course
through the vast countries they fertilize.

The Rocky Mountains, known to the early ex-
plorers as the Chippewyan Mountains, do not pre-
sent a range of uniform elevation, but rather
groups, and occasionally detached peaks. Though

■< . .

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

1.1 i.'

1 1 ....^ '

[;»^^

N 1^

i i.

some of these rise to the region of perpetual snows
yet their height from their immediate bases is not
so great as might be imagined, as they swell up
from elevated plains, several thousand feet above
the level of the ocean. These plains are often of a
desolate sterility, mere sandy wastes, formed of the
detritus of the granite heights, destitute of trees
and herbage, scorched by the ardent and reflected
rays of the summer's sun, and in winter swept by
chilling blasts from the snow-clad mountains. Such
is a great part of that vast region extending north
and south along the mountains, several hundred
miles in width, which has not been improperly
termed the Great American Desert. It is a region
that almost discourages all hope of cultivation, and
can be only traversed with safety by keeping near
the streams which intersect it. Extensive districts
likewise occur among the higher regions of the
mountains of considerable fertility ; between them
are deep valleys with small streams winding through
them, which find their way to the lower plains, and
discharge themselves into those vast rivers which
traverse the prairies like great arteries, and drain
the continent.

Between this lofty ridge and the next intersect-
ing one which runs parallel with it, the high plains
which rise into a table-land of considerable eleva-
tion, are at intervals gored and gashed with nu-
merous and dangerous chasms from four to ten feet
wide ; and it is even sometimes necessary to travel
a distance of fifty or sixty miles to get round one

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

of these tremendoua ravines ; and the lower plain,
which extends to the feet of these mountains, is
broken up near their bases into crests and ridges,
resembling the surges of the ocean breaking on a
rocky shore.

A remarkable peculiarity incidental to this
mountain range is that, on its eastern slope, the river
and creek bottoms are fertile and luxuriant in
their vegetation, whilst the ascents themselves are
desolate and barren ; whereas on the western side
these features are reversed, the mountain slopes
affording rich pasturage for flocks and herds, whilst
the valleys through which the streams flow are
sterile, rocky, and bare. ,,,

Nearly parallel to this lofty range, and at nearly
qual distances, a second and a third intervene,
within the territory watered by the Columbia, and
between it and the sea, running nearly north and
south, thus dividing it into three regions. The
first, or highest range, is called the Blue Moun-
tains, a name derived from the azure tint with
which they are clothed when seen from a distance,
between which and the Rocky Mountains lie high
table-land or steppes. The southern part of this
region is, as we have described it, a desert of vol-
canic origin, deep narrow valleys, and wide plains
''overed with sand and gravel. During the winter
there is but little snow upon the valleys, but the
summits of the mountains are never bare. It rarely
rains, and no dew falls. Between the Blue Moun-
tains and the cascade range, that nearest to the

^^'

MrW

.C'-J^-i^

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

Pacific, and so named from the succession of falls
which the Columbia makes in its passage across
them, foaming impetuously towards the ocean, may
be called the middle region of Oregon.

The immediate vicinity of these mountains is
shagged with dense and gloomy forests, and cut up
by deep and precipitous ravines ; the ground some-
times broken by a brawling stream, with a broken
rocky bed and with shouldering cliffs and promon-
tories on either side. But from these savage and
darkly wooded defiles the landscape occasionally
changes as if by magic. The rude mountains and
rugged ravines soften into beautiful hills and inter-
vening meadows, with rivulets winding through
fresh herbage, and sparkling and murmuring over
gravelly beds, the whole forming a verdant and
pastoral scene which derives additional charms
from being locked up in the bosom of such a hard
hearted region.

The general chrracterof this middle region is
elevated and dry, and less fertile than that portion
which skirts the ocean. It consists chiefly of
plains, covered with grass and small shrubs. Forest
timber is here comparatively scarce, and the trees
which are found are of the softer kinds of wood,
and useless for economical purposes, as the wil-
low, the sumac, and the cotton wood. Although
its atmosphere is characterized as dry, it is visited
by periodical rains, but the climate is healthy.
The country is not adapted for the cultivation
of the cereals, but is well suited for pasture land.

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

as is testified by the abundance of horses reared
here by the Indians. The most promising section
of the country is that which lies between the
cascade range and tiiC sea, and which we may
style the lowlands. It is a strip of land varying
between 30 and 100 miles in width and inter-
sected by spurs, set off occasionally from the range
which forms its frontier. The climate within this
district is warm and dry. From April to Octo-
ber, during the prevalence of the westerly winds,
rain seldom falls, but during the other months,
when the wind blows constantly from the south,
the rain is almost incessant. Snow is rarely seen
in this district, and agricultural operations can be
carried on throughout the whole of the year. Most
of the productions of the northern states of Ame-
rica thrive here, and horses and cattle can subsist
throughout the winter without fodder. The second
bottoms of rivers, being above inundation, are very
fertile, and extensive tracts are covered with rich
and luxuriant grass. The forests on the uplands
and sloping mountain ridges abound with timber-
trees of very large size, consisting chiefly of pines,
fir, larch, and their congeners. The most fertile
region of the whole of this fertile district is the
Yalley of the Wallemette, a stream which flows
westerly from its source, in the cascade range,
in the vicinity of that of the Umqua, when subse-
quently curving northerly it glides into the Columbia
at about 90 miles from the mouth of that river.
The valley through which this river runs is about

\::^

«.i

f -,

M'" 1 *1

H ^

■i\ tr^T'"

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

300 miles long, and its sheltered situa'ion has an
obvious effect upon its climate ; for it is a region
of great beauty and luxuriance, with lakes and pools
and green meadows shaded by noble groves. The
country bordering this river is finely diversified
with prairies and hills, and forests of oak, ash,
maple, and cedar. It abounds with elk and deer,
and the stream itself is well stocked with beaver.
In the vicinity of the mountains it is interspersed
with glens and ravines well wooded; its copses
abound in game, and the land, in its natural state,
is usually ready for the plough and exceedingly
productive. The climate is mild, and the air is
loaded with the perfume of the odoriferous shrubs
which nature has profusely scattered over the
domain.

It is through these three distinct districts that
the great Columbia river takes its course, fed by
the large arms of its several tributaries, all the
principal branches of which take their rise, to-
gether with the main stream, from the Rody
Mountains. It commences its course in about la-
titude 50", and flows north-westerly beyond latitude
52° where it curves southerly at its junction with
Canoe river. It is near this angifc, between Mounts
Hooker and Brown, where the most northern pass
opens to the Eastern country watered by the Saskat-
chawan. It now takes its course, flowing in a di-
rect line south and forming a string of lakes on the
eastern side of the Blue MountainSj as far as parallel
49", where it receives its first tributary, in Flatbow

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

River, which has just expanded into a wide lake,
and which from its source near that of the Co-
lumbia had taken a southerly range along the foot
of those mountains and a subsequent curvature
northwards, as it were, the duplication of that
taken by the Columbia itself. It is now speedily
joined by Clarke's, or Flathead river, which, after
a devious curve from its origin in latitude 46" in
the Rocky Mountains, runs nearly parallel with the
return of the Flatbow, and joins the Columbia
about 30 miles below that river. The Columbia
then proceeds due south, and forming an angle
round the base of the Blue Mountains, rushes pre-
cipitously eastward through a gorge of that chain,
when curving round their western slopes it receives
the Okanagan, which is rather a succession of lakes
than a river, that derive their influx of waters
from the western defiles of the range. The two
rivers, about the place of their confluence, are bor-
dered by immense prairies, covered with herbage,
but destitute of trees ; and the point itself is orna-
mented with wild flowers of every hue, in which
innumerable humming-birds banquet the live-long

Thus speeded onward, it undulates in a tortuous
course, along the western base of the Blue Moun-
tains, and it is at the angle here formed, of which
the point of juncture with the Okanagan may be
considered the apex, that that remarkable feature
called the Grande Coulee occurs, the conforma-
tion of which plainly indicates that the course

THE OllEGON TERRITORY.

I* 'i

* ■ I

m '

of the stream was once in its bed, but by some
violent orgasm of nature it has been forcibly
conveyed through a different defile, to its pre-
sent channel on the opposite side of the moun.
tains. The Coulee is a broad chasm, between
basaltic palisades, about 800 feet high. It varies
from two to three miles in width, and is about
fifty miles long. Its bottom is plain, apparently
level ; but to the north there are several granite
knolls resembling islands, about 700 feet high,
which are called the lies des Pierres. A gently
undulating prairie country leads to the Coulee des
Pierres, which in its peculiarities resembles the
Grande Coulee, but it is on a smaller scale. This
turns off at right angles, and joins the Columbia.
What tends to confirm the opinion that this once
formed the channel of the Columbia is the appear-
ance of boulders of granite being found at its south-
ern extremity, whilst no rock of that substance is
found nearer than its northern commencement.
The river, still proceeding in its southerly course
, with considerable sinuosity, receives near lat. 46"
its great southern branch, the Saptin, or Lewis'
River. This river has its origin near the south pass
of the Rocky Mountains, and there called the
Snake River. It flows north-westerly through
the wide and elevated prairie or steppe-land lying
between the Rocky and the Blue Mountains,
receiving many tributaries, chiefly from the west,
deducing their origin from the Blue Mountains.
The largest of these is Malheur River, exceedingly

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

tortuous in its course. It is next joined by Salmon
River, the largest of its eastern tributaries, and
subsequently by the Kooskooskee, both of which
spring from the Rocky Mountains. It is through-
out the prairies watered by these rivers that buf-
faloes still range in enormous herds, but which are
daily decreasing in consequence of the indiscri-
minate slaughter of them by the Indians. Clarke's
River now joins the Columbia, by a direct easterly
course, having first precipitated itself over the falls
and obstructions of the Blue Mountains. From
this point of juncture, flowing a short distance fur-
ther south, the Colombia receives the waters of the
Walla Walla, and then takes at right angles a course
due west, turbulently precipitating itself in a suc-
cession of rapids, first through the Dalles, which
name is given to that portion of the river where its
channel lies within the compressed space of about
30O feet, confined within basaltic perpendicular
walls, through which the river appears to have worn
gradually its present deep course. Just above these
Dalles it receives John Day's River, and Shuter's
River from the south ; and at their junction with it
the country is flat and sandy, with loose grass and
cacti distributed over it, affording shelter for the
hares and game with which it abounds. It is now
impelled forward through the broken country and
precipitous declivities of the Cascaderange of moun-
tains, which derives its name from the succession
of rapids over which the Columbia tears and boils.

c 2 '

!|:

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

\'ii

These falls or rapids are situated about one hun-
dred and eighty miles above the mouth of the river.
The first is a perpendicular cascade of twenty feet
after which there is a swift descent for a mile, be-
tween islands of hard black rock, to another pitch
of eight feet divided by two rocks. About two miles
and a half below this the river expands into a wide
basin, seemingly dammed up by a perpendicular
ridge of black rock. A current, however, sets
diagonally to the left of this rocky barrier where
there is a chasm forty- five yards in width. Through
this the whole body of the river roars along, swell-
ing and whirling and boiling for some distance in
the wildest confusion ; and here, in descending this
turbulent stream, the chief danger arises, not from
the rocks but from the great surges and whirlpools.
At a distance of a mile and a half from the foot of
this narrow channel is a rapid, formed by two rocky
islands ; and two miles beyond is a second great
fall, over a ledge of rocks twenty feet high, ex-
tending nearly from shore to shore. The river is
again compressed into a channel from fifty to a
hundred feet wide, worn throrgb a roii^h bed of
hard black rock, along which it boils and roars
with great fury for the distance of three miles.
This portion is called the " long narrows." Be-
fore it again expands into the usual amplitude of its
stream, it is bordered by stupendous precipices,
clothed with fir and white cedar. One of these
precipices or cliffs is curiously worn by time and

ibout one hun-
th of the river.
of twenty feet,
for a mile, be-
another pitch
bout two miles
ds into a wide
perpendicular
however, sets
barrier where
idth. Through
8 along, swell-
[16 distance in
escending this
ises, not from
nd whirlpools.
>m the foot of
by two rocky
second great
feet high, ex-
The river is
•cm fifty to a
rourrh bed of
)ils and roars
' three miles.
rrows." Be-
iplitude of its
IS precipices,
Dne of these
by time and

THE OREGON TERRITOIIY.

the weather, which have given it the appearance of a
ruined fortress, with tower and battlements beetling
high above the river ; while two small cascades,
one hundred and fifty feet in height, pitch down
from the fissures of the rocks.

Between this its last descent and the sea, it re-
ceives the Wallemette from the south at the point
where its own tides cease, which at its estuary have
a rise and fall of about eight feet ; and this estuary,
with its facilities for navigation, and with that its
prospect of ever forming a large commercial depot,
has been already described.

The agricultural capabilities of a new country
must necessarily determine the prospective advan-
tages to be derived from its extensive colonisation ;
and as the country we have thus rapidly traversed
has been carefully inspected with this view by a
very competent judge, Mr. Famham, we will
briefly state the result of his investigation, whence
it appears that the whole of the elevated land lying
between the Blue Mountains and the Rocky Moun-
tains, through which the Upper Columbia and the
Saptin or Lewis River flow, is an alternation of
vast tracts of desert and prairie, scored by volcanic
ravines and chasms, occupied by nomadic tribes of
ferocious Indians, essentially hunters from the
nature of the soil and climate, and changing their
position with the migrations of the animals which
they pursue. The next interval, lying between the
Blue Mountains and the Cascade Range, is also but
a succession of deserts, dotted it is true here and

''I' J

ii^ 1.

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

there with habitable spots, but still possessing no
feature sufficiently indicative of being capable of
wide agricultural exertions, although in the im-
mediate vicinity of the streams grain and fruit may
thrive. The remainder of the territory, commonly
called the " Low Country," is the only portion of
it that bears any claim to an agricultural character.
It is bounded on the north by the Straits of Fuca
and Puget's Sound, in lat. 48 ; on the east by the
Cascade Range, on the south by the parallel of 42,
and on the west by the Ocean ; thus comprising
seven degrees of latitude and about one hundred
miles of longitude, equal to about 49,000 square
miles, which is equivalent to 31,000,000 acres.
About one third of this may be ploughed and
another third pastured. The remainder consists of
irreclaimable ridges of minor mountains crossing
the country in all directions. To this should be
added Vancouver's Island, 200 miles long by 30
in average width ; and Queen Charlotte's Island,
100 miles long by an average of 15 in width; in
both which may be supposed to be the same ratio
of arable, pasture, and irreclaimable land, viz.
1,500,000 acres of each. And thus we have a
rough, but, I believe, a generally correct estimate
of the agricultural capacities of Lower Oregon—
about 12,000,000 of acres of arable, and 12,000,000
of acres of pasture land. The arable land of other
parts of the territory is so inconsiderable as to be
scarcely worthy of mention. At a rough calcula-
tion there are about 10,000,000 of acres of pasture

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

)osse8sing no
g capable of
in the im-
and fruit may
y, commonly
ly portion of
ral character,
raits of Fuca

east by the
arallel of 42,
5 comprising
one hundred
9,000 square
0,000 acres,
loughed and
er consists of
ains crossing
is should be
I long by 30
Dtte's Island,
in width ; in
le same ratio
e land, viz.

we have a
ect estimate
er Oregon—
i 12,000,000
and of other
ble as to be
igh calcula-
BS of pasture

land in all the region east of the Cascade Range.
Thus, throughout Oregon, there are but 12,000,000
of acres of arable country. And within the limits
described we have a surface of 215,000,000 of
acres ; deducting from this 32,000,000, as the ha-
bitable portion, leaves 183,000,000 of acres of
deserts and mountains.

Howsoever arid and barren the general features
of a large country may be, and as unprofitable as
its aspect is to the eye that views it, solely with
regard to its promise of utility to large communi-
ties of civilized man, yet nature is never so niggard
of attractive charms as not to present a pleasing
picture, when these, which are widely disseminated
over a large surface, are brought into close and
compact conjunction. Therefore in the brief sur-
vey we shall take of the productions of this country,
it must be borne in mind that many of them are
procured severally from very distant localities, and
combined in one apparent cornucopia. They seem
even already to have allured numerous bands of
emigrants to toil, sanguine with the hope of pro-
spective advantage, across wide and desolate deserts,
from the industrious and thriving communiti js of
civilization, into the heart of the wilderness. Man's
chief necessaries are food and shelter, and the co-
lonist, in selecting a new and distant country for
habitation, must waive all idea of the stores he
may convey with him, or the supplies he may con-
ceive himself able to command, and first ascertain
if, indefault of these, the new home will fui'nish

-^'

if i

THE OKEOON TEHUITORT,

him with his absolute wants. The earth is some-
times, yet rarely, the parent who, when she is asked
for bread, gives a stone ; and here, by the computa-
tion we have just shown, she would thus prove
herself. Yet is the land diversified in its produce.
Many edible roots are found upon which whole
tribes of aborigines feed, and when we remember
that the potato and the yam are both natives of
America, we see no reason why other roots as be-
neficial to man might not occur amongst the varied
vegetation of that prolific region.

In a country so much Intersected by rivers as is
the heart of Oregon, their immediate vicinity will
of course present a luxuriant vegetation, and it is
chiefly in the line of the watercourses that it has
been inspected. The aridity of the climate arising
from the great elevation of the largest portion of
the landy and the absence of refreshing rains, are
the chief causes of its general barrenness. No rain
falls between April and October, and a temperature,
which during the middle of the day at this season fluc-
tuates between 75 and 93 degrees, must necessarily
parch up the whale surface of the land, which gapes
in fissures for refreshing irrigation. But so free a
compensator is Nature, that the bunch grass, pe-
culiar to the wide steppes, thus burnt up, retains,
unlike other grasses, its nutritious qualities, even
when dried upon the soil. Fertile spots alone pro-
duce the roots to which we have alluded, the chief
of which is the Wappatoo, which gives its name to
an island where it abounds, dividing the Walle-

THE OIIEGON TERRITORY.

mette into two branches at its conjunction with
the Columbia.

The forest timbers are white oak, hemlock,
spruce, fir, yellow pine, ash, white and red ccdnr,
maple, willow, and a few walnut; of which the
fir and cedar, should the country eventually be-
come colonized, will be among its most valuable
articles of export. Flax, hemp, and cotton grow
in the lower country. It numbers many aromatic
shrubs, and the forests are rendered almost impene-
trable by clambering vines and parasites. It pro-
duces fruits in great abundance and of various
kinds, such as gooseberries, both yellow and purple,
the former growing on a stalk free from thorns.
There are also three kinds of currants, one very
large and well tasted, purple, and growing on a
bush eight or nine feet high ; another of a yellow
colour, and of the size and taste of the large red
currant, on a bush four or five feet high ; and the
third a beautiful scarlet, resembling the strawberry
in sweetness, though rather insipid, and growing on
a low bush. Strawberries are found in profusion,
as also are raspberries, both red and yellow ; very
large and finely flavoured whortleberries, cran-
berries, service-berries, blackberries, sloes, and
wild and choke cherries. Among the flowering
vines is one deserving of particular notice. Each
flower is composed of six leaves or petals, about
three incbes in length, of a beautiful crimson, the
inside spotted with white. Its leaves, of a fine
green, are oval and disposed in threes. This plant

'^:J

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

climbs upon trees without attaching itself to them-
when it has reached the topmost branches, it de.
scends perpendicularly, and as it continues to grow
extends from tree to tree, until its various stalks
interlace the grove like the rigging of a ship. The
stems or trunks of this vine are tougher and more
flexible than willow, and are from fifty to one
hundred fathoms in length. From the fibres the
Indians manufacture baskets of such close texture
as to hold water. This country teems also with
innumerable flowers, which enamel the pastures
with the varied beauties of their tints.

Just as the geological constitution of a country
influences its vegetation will the latter affect its zoo-
k)gy ; thus the frugivorous birds and animals follow
fruits, as the gramnivorous do the grains and roots;
and the wide prairie lands and forests afford sus-
tenance to those which pasture and browse; and
where these abound we invariably find the carni-
vorous tribes in their track. Thus nature, by its
succession of links both of conformation and appe-
tite, is universally held together, and its choral
dance of destruction and reproduction is kept in
incessant action and- reaction throughout the alter-
nation of its seasons. Among the birds of this
country we find eagles, vultures, crows, ravens,
and magpies, in large flocks; wookpeckers,
pigeons, partridges, grouse, and a very extensive
variety of singing-birds. Birds, of course, from
their greater powers of locomotion, are less tied to
a soil than any other description of creature ; and

itself to them;

) ranches, it de.

tinues to grow

various stalkg

of a ship. The

her and more

fifty to one

the fihres the

h close texture

ems also with

il the pastures

;s.

I of a country
3r affect its zoo-
animals follow
■ainsand roots;
csts afford sus-
d browse; and
[ind the carni-
I nature, by its
ition and appe-
and its choral
tion is kept in
bout the alter-
! birds of this
crows, ravens,
wookpeckers,
very extensive
f course, from
are less tied to
creature; and

THE OllFOON TEIiniTORY.

from the multitudes of migratory kinds we are
prepared to expect a greater variety of these than
the existing lists announce, which at due and con-
genial seasons will visit this large tract of country.
Aquatic birds abound in a country intersected by
so many streams, and we accordingly find swans,
geese of many kinds, brant and ducks of every
description, as well as herons and cranes. And on
its seaward coasts we observe pelicans, gulls, cur-
lews, guillemots, and divers of vast varieties. Its
coasts are visited, and the mouths of its rivers
jwarm, with shoals of nutritious fish, sufficient to
form extensive fisheries, and a prime staple for
commercial activity and enterprise : among these
ffe may enumerate the sturgeon, the sardine, and
the salmon, which are apparently inexhaustible in
their prolific abundance. The sardine, called
uthlecan by the natives, makes its appearance about
the beginning of February, and is six inches long ;
it very much resembles a smelt, and is of a de-
licious flavour, and so fat as to burn like a candle,
for which it is often used by the savages. It
enters the rivers in immense shoals, like solid
columns, often extending to the depth of five or
more feet, and is scooped up in small nets, by which
means a canoe is soon filled, or the shore heaped
with them, and they are then dried and strung for
subsequent use. But though salmon is the chief
fish that visit these rivers, ascending them in its
season, which extends from May to August, in
large quantities, when the peculiar character of

• I

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

the Columbia admirably adapts it for their capture
in the succession of rapids whereby its course is
precipitated. These form a succession of leaps, at
which points the piscatory tribes of natives post
themselves for the purpose of laying in their stores
as well as for barter with other tribes, who ex-
change dried buffalo-flesh and game of different
kinds for salmon cured by these. An inferior
species of salmon succeeds this, and continues to
be caught from August to December. It is re-
markable for having a double row of teeth, half an
inch long, and extremely sharp, from whence it has
received the name of the dog- toothed salmon.

The quadrupeds which are found, and which as
yet constitute the only riches it has produced in the
large quantities of furs that have been collected and
trafficked away, and to which trade, as we shall sub-
sequently recur, will detain us now merely in their
rapid enumeration, consist of panthers, of rare oc-
currence, and only in the southern parts ; the black
and grizzly bear, the antelope, the ahsahta, or big-
horn, the stag, elk, hart, fallow-deer, argali, beaver,
the sea and river otter, the muskwash, or musk-rat,
the fox, wplf, mink, a small kind of otter, raccoon,
lynx, various kinds of the weasel tribes, squirrels
of different descriptions; and almost exclusively
restricted to the upland region, the buffalo, or
bison, in innumerable herds. The horse and the
dog are found domesticated among the na*^^ives;
some tribes of whom keep the latter for food, and
it is found both palatable and nutritious.

-. -W'

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

Of these animals the muskwash, or musk-rat,
furnishes the greatest number of skins yearly ex-
portal from that teeming country. It is one of
the gnawing animals, as its name indicates, and its
habits are very much allied to those of the beaver,
being social and very prolific. It is of about the
size of a rabbit, and is of a reddish-grey colour ; it
constructs little huts composed of grass and rushes,
on the edge of streams, cemented with clay, in
which several families live together, and its food
consists of roots. But although thus partaking of
the nature of the beaver, yet do they neither swim
nor dive well. As the natural history of the beaver
may not be familiar to all our readers, and as its
skin constitutes a staple article in the export of
fur, and besides being extremely interesting, we
will give a brief notice of it. It is of about the
size of a badger, with a thick round head, short
small ears, diminutive eyes, an obtuse muzzle, and
vertical fissure, like a rabbit, and hare in the upper
lip. It has two large cutting teeth in each jaw,
which enables it to strip off and divide the bark
of trees, and to gnaw through trunks of consider-
able thickness. They are as sharp as chisels,
rtrongly enamelled on the anterior surface, and
with the peculiar faculty of growing as fast from
the base as they are worn down at the extremity.
Their fore limbs are shorter than their hinder, and
these possess great strength and muscularity. They
have five toes on each foot, and, to adapt them to
the element in which they chiefly reside, the

THE OKEGON TERRITORY.

hinder ones are webbed, and in further corre-
spondence, as every thing in nature harmonises
their tail, which serves them as a rudder, is large
and flat and oval, half as long as the body, and
covered with scales in lieu of fur. They are of a
bright brown colour, and their fur consists of two
kinds, the hair in front being soft, short, and silky,
and behind long and coarse. During summer they
live in holes on the banks of rivers, which they
quit only to seek food, which consists of the bark
of young trees, herbage or berries. In the autumn
they assemble in communities, sometimes two or
three hundrrd strong, to prepare conjunctively a
winter dwelling. They usually choose a stream
not likely to be frozen to the bottom, the current
of which yields them the advantage of water-car-
riage for their materials, and they prefer the
northern bank for the sake of enjoying the sun,
and an island usually for the sake of security. If,
as is often the case, the spot selected be the bank
of a river where the water is rather shallow, they
construct a dam with considerable ingenuity and
industry, by carrying a mole across in a straight
line if the stream be slow, but curved if the cur-
pent be rapid. This they form convex and per-
pendicular on the side opposite the current, but
declining on the other from a summit three feet
thick to a base ten or twelve feet broad. They
frame it of timber, stones, and clay, for which
purpose the trees nearest the water's edge and
above the site of their structure are chosen. They

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

gnaw these with the instinctive sagacity which in-
structs them to induce them to fall towards the
stream ; they then lop off the branches, which with
the trunks they cut into the lengths they require,
and float them down to their destination. Here
they are secured by stones brought by these extra-
ordinary animals in their paws from the bottom,
and a succession of layers compacted by mud com-
pletes the work. Their huts vary in number from
ten to thirty, and are built of the same materials,
six or seven feet above the water, of an oval or
round shape, and coped in with a dome or roof.
The entrance is made beneath a projection which
advances several feet into the stream, with a re-
gular descent at least three feet below the surface,
to guard against its being frozen up. This the
hunters call the angle, and a single dwelling is
sometimes furnished with two or more. Near the
entrance, and on the outside of the houses, the
heavers store up the branches of trees, the bark of
which forms their chief subsistence during the
winter; and these magazines sometimes contain
more than a cartload of provisions. Their work
is all performed at night, and with great expedi-
tion. The numbers in each individual dwelling
seldom exceed two or four old ones, and thrice as
many young ones. The females produce once a year
from two to four at a birth, who quit their parents
at the age of three years. Their flesh is usually
esteemed by the hunters and trappers, who live
chiefly upon it during their expeditions, and be-

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

sides their skins, which supply fur for hats, which
is now being rapidly superseded by silk, both on
account of its greater expense and the decrease of
the number of animals, this creature produces a
secretion known by the name of castor, a substance
used in medicine.

Of the furs produced in this country, that of the
silver fox is perhaps the rarest and most valuable.
This animal is a native of the woody country below
the Columbia River. It has a long, thick, deep,
lead-coloured fur, intermingled with long hairs,
invariably white at the top, forming a bright, lus-
trous, silver grey. The skin of the grizzly bear is
also a very valuable fur, worth usually, at whole-
sale price, more than a thousand dollars. This
animal is of the size of a cow, and of prodigious
strength. His speed exceeds that of a man, but is
inferior to that of the horse. In attacking, it rears
itself on its hind legs and springs the length of its
body, and it possesses terrific claws, which are some-
times nine inches in length, capable of tearing
everything before them. The bison, or, as it is
more usually called, the buffalo, is also an animal of
great importance in the interior of the country,
where its range rarely extends so far as the Blue
Mountains, nor much higher north than Flat Head or
Clarke's River. This animal is larger than the ox,
being usually six feet high at the shoulder, and
will sometimes reach the weight of two thousand
pounds. In front he is large and strong, and co-
rered with long woolly hair of a uniform dun

3r hats, which
silk, both on
le decrease of
re produces a
r, a substance

y, that of the
nost valuable,
country below
, thick, deep,
h long hairs,
a bright, lus-
grizzly bear is
lly, at whole-
iollars. This
of prodigious
a man, but is
eking, it rears
1 length of its
hich are sorae-
•le of tearing
I, or, as it is
) an animal of

the country,

• as the Blue
I Flat Head or

• than the ox,
shoulder, and
two thousand
ong, and co-
uniform dun

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

colour, although they are said to occur sometimes,
yet rarely, spotted. It has a long and shaggy
mane on the neck and shoulders. The hinder parts
are comparatively slender. His head is prone, and
his small eyes glancing from beneath his rugged
locks give him a fierce and sinister look. The
horns are short, sharp, curved, and turn backward.
The tail, which is not much more than a foot long,
is nearly naked except at the tip, which has a tuft
of long black hair. The bulls and cows live in
separate herds, except during the rutting season ;
but at all times one or two old bulls accompany a
Q large herd of cows ; and these herds are sometimes so
numerous, that Lewis and Clarke tell us, that on
the banks of the Missouri, for the width of a mile,
these animals densely covered it, including also an
island over which they passed — crossing as thickly
as they could swim ; and we find by a traveller on
the western side of the Rocky Mountains, that he
found them moving in countless droves, traversing
plains, pouring through the intricate defiles of
mountains, swimming rivers, having their here-
ditary paths and highways worn deep through the
country, and making for the surest passes of the
mountains and the most practicable fords of the
rivers. When once a great column is in full career,
it goes straight forward regardless of all obstacles,
those in front being impelled by the moving mass
behind, and trampling down everything in their
course. It was the lot of this traveller and his compa-
nions one night to encamp on one of these buffalo

f,:.li

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

> r

I]'

•J

1$ T .t» >

y' '

landing places, exactly on the trail. They had
not been long asleep, when they were awakened
by a great bellowing and tramping, and the rush
and splash and snorting of animals in the river.
They had just time to ascertain that a buffalo army
was entering the river on the opposite side and
m iking towards the landing place ; by the time
they had shifted their camp the head of the column
had reached the shore, and came pressing up the
bank. It was singular to behold by moonlight this
countless throng, making their way across the river,
blowing, bellowing, and splashing. Sometimes
they pass in such dense and continuous columns as
to form a temporary dam across the river, the
waters of which rise and rush over their backs, or
between their squadrons. The roaring and rush-
ing sounds of one of these vast herds crossing a
river may sometimes, in a still night, be heard for
miles. In pursuing a herd of buffaloes a strong
odour of musk is emitted and is left in their wake,
and their feet make the grass crackle as if it were
on fire. They are peculiarly susceptible of the
scent of a man, and will wind him at a distance of
even two or three miles when to the leeward of
him, and they then commence galloping in great
alarm, and with the greatest speed. They take great
pleasure in wallowing and throwing up the dust,
which at a distance resembles the spouting of a
whale. Buffaloes and elks are sometimes seen on
the same prairies, and do not appear to be affected
by each other's presence ; but they will not herd

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

together. The buffalo will not intermix with any
but its own kind, and all attempts to cross it with
the common cow have provea hitherto abortive.
These migratory wanderings of large herds of buf-
faloes is always accompanied by packs of wolves,
which harass them on the rear and flank, and the
raven, and the crow, and the vulture are not very
distant, to revel in the mortality which accompa-
nies from various causes, but chiefly the indiscri-
minate slaughter by the savages, of these vast herds
of animals.

Having thus far progressed on a rapid and im-
perfect survey of this country and its native pro-
ductions, those at least which we may consider as
most indigenous, we may proceed to glance at its
autochthones, or aborigines, who at a period beyond
the reach of tradition must have migrated to these
regions, where the gradual influence of local cir-
cumstances and climate have stamped an indelible
and permanent character upon their habits and
manners, and broken them into distinct tribes,
which seem in their broadest features to be deduced
from two sources — the squalid Esquimaux of the
north-west and arctic circles, and the fiery, iras-
cible, and warlike race of coppery-red Indians jf
the eastern and Atlantic plains. Their numbers,,
in as far as a rough calculation may approximate,
would seem to be somewhere about 40,000 ; but of
course this must necessarily be a very vague esti-
mate. They are thus distributed : — along the
coast, about 14,000; and of these the greatest re-

^'i}

THE OilEGON TERRITORY.

ii t

lative proportion inhabit Vancouver's and Queen
Charlotte's Island. In the interior of the " Lower
Country," as far as the Cascade range, and about
the Cascades, there may be 4000. Between the
Cascade range and the Blue Mountains occur per-
haps about 3500, and the nomadic tribes which
wander about the Rocky Mountains and on the
steppes intervening between them and the Blue
Mountains make up the rest.

The effect of different modes of life upon the
human frame and human character is strikingly
instanced in the contrast between the hunting
Indians of the prairies and the piscatory Indians of
the sea-coasts. The former, continually on horse-
back scouring the plains, gaining their food by
hardy exercise, and subsisting chiefly on flesh, are
generally tall, sinewy, meagre, but well-formed,
and of bold and fierce deportment: the latter,
lounging about the river-banks, or squatted and
curved up in their canoes, are generally low in
stature, ill-shaped, with crooked legs, thick ankles,
and broad flat feet. They are inferior also in
muscular power and activity, and in energetic
qualities and appearance, to the hard-riding savages
of the prairies. The most prevalent and universal
character, and which, although with modifications,
pervades almost all the tribes, is ferocity and faith-
lessness, and the instinctive cunning which is uni-
versally characteristic of man in his uncultivated
state, whether his skin be white, red, or black.
^ The tribes frequenting the most northerly shores

it.

life upon the
is strikingly
the hunting
ry Indians of
lly on horse-
heir food by
on flesh, are
well-formed,
the latter,
squatted and
rally low in
thick ankles,
rior also in
n energetic
ling savages
id universal
odifi cations,
y and faith-
hich is uni-
ncultivated
black,
lerly shores

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

of this region exhibit, as has been shown by Cook,
who described fully the habits of those dwelling in
the vicinity of Nootka Sound, considerable me-
chanical ingenuity in the construction of their
matted and plaited clothing, made of the inner
bark of several trees, their carved arras, the con-
struction of their canoes and of their dwellings.
All tribes are universally fond of painting them-
selves with the gaudiest colours, and a similar un-
couth taste is exhibited in their adornments and
clothing. Before] the introduction of iron tools
amongst them their ingenuity was necessarily
taxed to make instruments to fell timber for the
construction of their dwellings and the various
requirements for which sharp tools were needed ;
and the specimens that have been brought to
Europe of their beautiful carving are the surest
proof of their having overcome this difficulty.
Their dwellings were framed upon centre posts about
twenty feet high, upon which a long pole rests,
which forms the keel of the roof; from this trans-
verse rafters descend to another similar one placed
lengthwise, forming the eaves, and about five feet
from the ground ; and this frame is skirted with a
sort of wainscoting enclosing it, the whole tied to-
gether at the angles with cords of cedar bark ;
within, the sides are subdivided, like the stalls of a
stable, and these they occupy as sleeping-places.

Those inhabiting the vicinity of the mouth of
the Columbia consist of four tribfes, the Chinooks,
the Clatsops, the Wahkiacums, and the Cathlamahs.

, D 3

I'i •

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

f?'*" J.

PS.

V 't

They resemble each other in person, dress, Ian.
guage, and manner, and were probably from the
same stock, but broken into tribes, or rather
hordes, by the feuds and schisms frequent among
the Indians, and which originate either in personal
jealousies or the rancour of the violent passions of
our common nature. These people generally live
by fishing, but they occasionally hunt the elk and
deer, and ensnare the waterfowl of the ponds and
rivers. These piscatory tribes of the coast excel
in the management of canoes, and are never more
at home than when riding upon the waves. Their
canoes vary in form and size. Some are upwards
of fifty feet long, cut out of a single tree, either fir
or white cedar, and capable of carrying thirty per-
sons. They have thwart pieces from side to side,
about three inches thick, and their gunwales flare
outwards, so as to cast off the surges of the waves.
The bow and stern are decorated with grotesque
figures of men and animals, sometimes five feet in
length. In managing their canoes they kneel two
and two along the bottom, sitting on their heels,
and wielding paddles from four to five feet long,
while one sits on the stem and steers with a paddle
of the same kind. The women are equally expert
with the men in managing the canoe, and generally
take the helm. It is surprising with what fearless
unconcern the savages venture in their light barks
upon the roughest and most tempestuous seas.
They seem to ride upon the waves like sea-fowl.
Should a surge throw the canoe upon its side, and

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

•". dress, Ian,
%from the
l^s» or rather
•quent among i
jer in personal
nt passions of
:enerally live
|t the elk and
he ponds and
' coast excel
e never more
^aves. Their
are upwards
ree, either fir
ig thirty per-
i side to side,
unwales flare
^f the Waves.
th grotesque
's five feet in
sy kneel two
their heels,
e feet long,
ith a paddle
ually expert
»d generally
hat fearless
light barks
tuous seas.
e sea-fowl.
ts side, and

endanger its overthrow, those to windward lean
over the upper gunwale, thrust their paddles deep
into the wave, apparently catch the water and force
it under the canoe, and by this action not merely
regain an equilibrium, but give the bark a vigorous
impulse forward.

These tribes are rather a diminutive race, ge-
nerally below five feet five inches, with crooked
legs and thick ankles, the causes of which we have
already ahuded to. The women increase the de-
formity by wearing tight bandages round the
ankles, which prevent the circulation of the blood,
and cause a swelling of the muscles of the leg.
Neither sex can boast of personal beauty ; their
faces are round, with small but animated eyes.
Their noses are broad and flat at top, and fleshy at
the end, with large nostrils. They have wide
mouths, thick lips, and short, irregular, and dirty
teeth. In summer time, previous to the arrival of
the whites, the men were entirely naked ; in the
winter and in bad weather they wore a small robe
reaching to the middle of the thigh, made of the
skins of animals, or of the wool of the mountain
sheep. Occasionally they wore a kind of mantle
of matting, to keep off the rain ; but having thus
protected the back and shoulders, they left the rest
of the body naked. The women wore similar
robes, though shorter, not reaching below the waist ;
besides which they had a kind of petticoat or
fringe, reaching n'om the waist to the knee, formed
of the fibres of cedar bark, broken into strands, or

'if.

IS 1

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

^■4**^"

a tissue of silk grass, twisted and knotted at the
ends. This was the usual dress of the women in
summer ; in inclement weather they added a vest
of skins similar to the robe. The men eradicated
every vestige of a beard, considering it a great de-
formity. Both sexes, on the other hand, cherished
the hair of the head, which with them is generally
black and rather coarse. They allowed it to grow
to a great length, and were very proud and careful
of it, sometimes wearing it plaited, sometimes
wound round the head in fanciful tresses. No
greater affront could be offered to them than to cut
off their treasured locks. They had conical hats
with narrow brims, woven of bear grass, or of the
fibres of cedar bark, interwoven with designs of
various shapes and colours. These hats were nearly
waterproof, and very durable. The favourite orna-
ments of the men were collars of bears' claws, the
trophies of hunting exploits ; and the women and
children wore similar decorations of elks' tusks.
The men, who carry a passion for personal decora-
tion further than the females, did not think their
gala equipments complete unless they had a jewel
of haiqua or wampum dangling at the nose. Thus
arrayed, their hair besmeared with fish oil, and
their bodies bedaubed with red clay, they con-
sidered themselves irresistible. When on warlike
expeditions, they painted their faces and bodies in
the most hideous and grotesque manner. Their
arms were bows and arrows, spears and war-clubs.
Some wore a cor8let_ formed of pieces of hard

III

"1lJ

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

wood, laced together with bear-grass, so as to form
a light coat of mail pliant to the body ; and a kind
of casque of cedar bark, leather, and bear- grass,
sufficient to protect the head from an arrow or war-
club. A more complete article of defensive
armour was a buff jerkin or shirt of great thick-
ness, made of doublings of elk-skin, and reaching
to the feet, holes being left for the head and arms.
This was perfectly arrow-proof, and it was besides
endowed with charmed virtues by the spells and
mystic ceremonials of the medicine-man or con-
juror. The religious belief of these savages was
extremely limited and confined, or rather, in all
probability, their explanations were little under-
stood by their visitors. They had an idea of a
benevolent and omnipotent Spirit, the creator of all
things. They represent him as assuming various
shapes at pleasure, but generally that of an im-
mense bird. He usually inhabits the sun, but oc-
casionally wings his way through thi aerial regions,
and sees all that is doing upon the tarth. Should
anything displease him, he vents his wrath in ter-
rific storms and tempests, the lightning being the
flashes of his eyes and the thunder the clapping of
his wings. To propitiate his favour they offer to
him annual sacrifices of salmon and venison, the
first fruits of their fishing and hunting. Besides
this aerial spirit, they believe in an inferior one,
who inhabits the fire, and of whom they are in per-
petual dread, as, though he possessed equally the
power of good and evil, the evil ik apt to pre-

PI ^ Sir
■ w

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

) >/ (

dominate. They endeavour therefore to keep him
in a good humour by frequent offerings. He is
supposed also to have great influence with the
winged spirit, their sovereign protector and benefac-
tor. They implore him consequently to act as their
interpreter, and procure them all desirable things,
such as success in fishing and hunting, abundance
of game, obedient wives, and male children. These
Indians have likewise their priests or conjurors, or
medicine- men, who pretend to be in the confidence
of the deities and the expounders and enforcers of
their will. Each of these medicine-men has his
idols carved in wood, representing the spirits of
the air and of the fire under some rude and gro-
tesque form of a bear or beaver or other quadruped,
or that of a bird or fish. These idols are hung
round with amulets or votive offerings, such as
beavers' teeth and bears' and eagles' claws.

When any chief personage is dangerously ill,
the medicine-man is sent for. Each brings with
him his idols, with which he retires into a canoe to
hold a consultation. As doctors are prone to dis-
agree, so these medicine-men have now and then a
violent altercation as to the malady of the patient
or the treatment of it. To settle this they beat
their idols soundly against each other, and which-
ever first loses a tooth or a claw is considered as
ponfuted, and his votary retires from the field.

Polygamy is not only allowed, but considered
honourable ; and the greater number of wives a man
can mj^intain the more important is he in the eyes

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

of the tribe. The first wife however takes rank of
all the ethers, and is considered mistress of the
house. He also who exceeds his neighbours in the
number of his wives, male children, and slaves, is
elected chief of the village. Feuds are frequent
among them, but are not very deadly ; thus totally
differing from the warlike races in the vicinity of
the Rocky Mountains, but, with the ferocity of the
latter, if they fall upon an inferior force or village
weakly defended, they slay all the men and carry
off the women and children as slaves. They are
mean and paltry as warriors, and altogether inferior
in heroic qualities to the truly equestrian savages
of the buffalo plains. A great portion of their
time is passed in revelry, music, dancing, and
gambling. Their music scarcely deserves the name,
the instruments being of the rudest kind. Their
singing is harsh and discordant; the songs are
chiefly extempore, relating to passing circum-
stances, the persons present, or any trifling subject
that strikes the attention of the singer. They have
several kinds of dances, some of them lively and
pleasing. The women are rarely permitted to
dance with the men, but form groups apart, dancing
to the same instrument and song. They are also
notorious thieves, and proud^of their dexterity ; and
frequent success gains them applause, but the
clumsy thief is scoffed at and despised.

Each village forms a petty sovereignty governed
by its own chief, who, however, possesses but little
luthority unless he be a man of wealth and substance,

' «

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THE OREGON TERRITORY.

— that is, possessed of canoes, slaves, and wives.
The greater number of these the greater is the chief.

We thus here see a further proof of slavery
being a customary feature of the primitive con-
dition of mankind, and its abolition the greatest
test of the progressive advancement of civilization,
promoted beneath the genial and benign influence
of the moral and religious doctrines of Christianity
and its inspiriting philanthropy. And if anything
could reconcile us to the prospect of a virar with
the United States to determine the disputed pos-
session of this territory, it would only be the hope-
ful consideration, that this mighty empire would,
when once armed and in the field, and on the waves,
and arrayed with the awful attributes of an aveng-
ing Nemesis, never consent to withdraw her over-
whelming energies until, as a condition for her
acceptance of the submissively-tendered palm and
olive, the total abrogation and abolition of slavery
in the States, where the lustre of the starred standard
is dimmed by its red stripes. -v . ^ ^

These slaves are the women and children of
other either subjugated or defeated tribes taken in
war. They are well treated while in good health,
but occupied in all kinds of drudgery. Should
they become useless, however, by sickness or old
age, they are totally neglected and left to perish ;
nor is any respect paid to their bodies after death.
With respect to the dead, all tribes of Indians have
a very reverential feeling for their remains. A
proof of this is shown by the description of an

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

and wives,
r is the chief,
f of slavery
rimitive con-
the greatest
civilization,
Ign influence
"Christianity
if anything
a war with
iisputed pos-
be the hope-
mpire would,
on the waves,
of an aveng-
W her over-
ition for her
ed palm and
)n of slavery
rred standard

children of
bes taken in
good health,
-ry. Should
kness or old
t to perish;
after death,
rndians have
emains. A
ption of an

Indian sepulchre, now destroyed by an accidental
lire which took place during Captain Wilkes's ex-
ploring expedition. This place of sepulture was
called Mount Coffin by the Europeans who first
visited that part of the Columbia, a place held in
great reverence by the Indians ; it is seated near the
part where the Cowlitz river falls into the Colum-
bia. It was an isolated rock about one hundred
and f iV' feat high, rising from a low marshy soil,
and t^ lisconnected with the adjacent moun-

tains, r^itfir preparation for interment is this:
the dead body is wrapped in a mantle of skins, laid
in his canoe, with his paddle, his fishing spear, and
other implements beside him, and placed aloft on
8ome rocky eminence, overlooking the river, bay,
or lake he has frequented : he is thus fitted to launch
away upon those placid streams and sunny lakes.
Blocked with all kinds of fish and waterfowl, which
are prepared in the next world for those who have
acquitted themselves as good sons, good fat'^ers,
good husbands, and above all good fishermen,
during their mortal sojourn. This isolated rock
presented a spectacle of this kind, numerous dead
bodies being deposited in canoes on its summit ;
while on poles around were trophies, or rather
funereal offerings of trinkets, garments, baskets of
roots, and other articles for the use of the deceased.
The friends of the deceased, especially the women,
repaired thither at sunrise and sunset for some
time after a burial, singing a funeral dirge, accom-
panied by loud wailings and lamentations.

• if.

♦ '1

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

\ I

■'•A remarkable custom prevails among many
tribes of Indians of flattening the forehead. The
process by which this deformity is effected com-
mences immediately after birth. The infant is
laid in a wooden tiv;ugh by way of cradle. The
end on which the head reposes is higher than the
rest. A padding is placed on the forehead of the
infant, with a piece of bark above it, and is pressed
down by cords which pass through holes on each
side of the trough. As the tightening of the pad-
ding and the pressing of the head to the board is
gradual, the process is said not to be attended with
much pain. The appearance of the infant, however,
while in this state of compression is whimsically
hideous, and its little black eyes being forced out
by the tightness of the bandages resemble those
of a mouse choked in a trap. About a year's
pressure is sufficient to produce the desired effect,
at the end of which time the child emerges from
its bandages a complete flathead, and continues so
through life. This flattening has an aristocratical
significancy, and is a sign of freedom, as no slave
is permitted to bestow this enviable deformity on
his child.

There is inherent in all Indian tribes the spirit
and sagacity of traffic, and its most prominent
feature, the desire to overreach. But the only in-
stance of commercial enterprise being methodically
and systematically carried out at a regular depot is
the village of Wishram, at the head of the Long
Narrows, on the Columbia, in the Cascade Range

THE OREGON TERRITORr.

of Mountains. Their trade consists in the salmon
ffhich are caught at these falls. In the early part
of the season, when the water is high, the salmon
ascend the river in incredible numbers. As they
pass through this narrow strait, the Indians, stand-
ing on the rocks, or on the ends of wooden stages
[projecting from the banks, scoop them up with
small nets distended on hoops and attached to long
handles, and cast them on shore. They are then
cured and packed in a peculiar manner. After
haying been disembowelled, they are exposed to
the sun on scaffolds, erected on the river banks.
When sufficiently dry, they are pounded fine be-
twreen two stones, pressed into the smallest com-
pass, and packed in baskets or bales of grass
matting, about two feet long and one in diameter,
lined with the cured skin of a salmon. The top is
likewise covered with fish skins, secured by cords
passing through holes in the edge of the basket.
Packages are then made, each containing twelve of
these bales, seven at bottom and five at top, pressed
closely to each other with the corded side upwards,
wrapped in mats and corded. These are placed in
dry situations, and again covered with matting.
Each of these packages contains from ninety to a
hundred pounds of dried fish, which, in this state,
will keep. The dwellings at Wishram are very
like those we have described, as being built by the
native tribes along shore, towards the northern
portions of the territory, indicating, possibly, a
further affinity of common origin. The houses are

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THE OREGON TERRITORY.

built of wood with long sloping roofs, the floor
is sunk about six feet below the surface of the
ground, with a low door at the gabel end, extremely
narrow and partly sunk. Through this it is neces-
sary to crawl and then to descend a short ladder.
This inconvenient entrance is probably for the
purpose of defence. There were also loopholes be-
neath the eaves, apparently for the discharge of
arrows. The houses are sufficiently large to con-
tain two or three families : just within the door are
the sleeping places ranged along the walls, like
berths in a ship, and furnished with pallets of mat-
ting. These extended along one half of the building ;
the remaining half was appropriated to the storing
of dried fish. It is to this place that the tribes from
the mouth of the Columbia repaired with the fish
of the sea coast, the roots, berries, and especially
the Wappatoo, gathered in the lower parts of the
river, together with goods and trinkets, obtained
from the ships which casually visited the coast.
Hither also the tribes from the Rocky Mountains
brought down horses, beargrass, quamash, and
other commodities of the interior. The merchant
fishermen at the falls acted as middlemen or factors,
and passed the objects of traffic as it were cross-
handed, trading away part of the wares received
from the mountain tribe, to those of the river and
the plains, and vice versd; their packages of
pounded salmon entered largely into the system of
barter, and being carried off in opposite directions,
found their way to the savage hunting camps far

THE OREGON TERRITORT.

'^s, the floor
rface of the
'd, extremely
h it is neces-
short ladder,
[ably for the
[loopholes be-
discharge of
^rge to con-
the door are
B walls, like
illets of mat-
the building;
) the storing
B tribes from
nth the fish
»d especially
parts of the
3ts, obtained
d the coast.
Y Mountains
amash, and
le merchant
n or factors,
were cross-
es received
e river and
ackages of
5 system of
directions,
camps far

in the interior, and to the casual white traders,
fho touched upon the coast.

The habits of trade and the avidity of gain have
their corrupting effects, even in the wilderness, as
nay be instanced in the members of this aboriginal
emporium ; for they are denounced by the same
traveller, from whom we derive the above sketch
of the place, as saucy, impudent rascals, who will
iteal when they can, and pillage whenever a weak
party falls into their power.

Further in the interior we find the equestrian
race. It is a remarkable fact that the horse, which
is not a native of the soil, should have become so
identified with the habits and manners of these
children of the wilderness, as to be an almost
essential portion of their existence. It is also a
singular fact that from the period of its first intro-
duction by the Spaniards it should have propagated
ro rapidly and spread so widely as to reassume
throughout the prairie land of both South and
North America its primitive state of freedom,
whence it was first subjugated by the wandering
hordes of the steppes of Tartary. Congeniality of
climate and similarity of country are without doubt
die causes of the comparatively rapid distribution
of this noble and useful animal thrdughout this vast
continent. Among these Indians it is the chief
proof of wealth, and a constant source of war to
acquire its possession. Tribes which are essen-
tially nomadic do not, of course, build durably
like those who have settlft4 residences. We thus

! '; .

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THE OREGON TERRITORY.

find the habitations of the majority of these to be
mere tents and cabins, or lodges of mats, or skins
or straw, one cause of which is possibly the pecu-
liar nature of the country they occupy, which is ]
very destitute of timber. Yet each tribe has a
different mode of shaping or arranging them, so I
that it is easy to tell, on seeing a lodge or encamp- \
ment at a distance, to what tribe the inhabitants
belong. They sometimes present a gay and fan-
ciful appearance, being painted with undulating
bands of red or yellow, or decorated with rude
figures of horses, deer and buffaloes, and with
human faces painted like full moons four and five
feet broad. We thus see art in its infancy prac-
tised by these savages, its first principles being
thus natively inherent to humanity.

These tribes are in continual war with each
other, and their wars are of the most harassing
kind, consisting not merely of conflicts and expe-
ditions of moment, involving the sacking, burn-
ing, and massacre of villages, but of individual
acts of treachery, murder, and cold-blooded cru-
elty ; or of the vaunting and foolhardy exploits of
single warriors, either to avenge some personal
wrong, or to gain the vain-glorious trophy of a
scalp. The lonely hunter, the wandering way-
farer, the poor squaw cutting wood or gathering
straw, is liable to be surprised and slaughtered.
In this way tribes are either swept away at once,
or gradually thinned out, and savage life is thus
surrounded with constant horrors and alarms.

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

That the race of red men should diminish from
year to year, and so few should survive of the
numerous nations which evidently once peopled
the vast regions of the West, is tlierefore not sur-
I prising ; it is rather a matter of surprise that so
many should still survive, for the existence of a
[savage in these parts seems little better than a
prolonged and all-besetting death.

The life of an Indian when at home in his village
is a life of indolence and amusement. To the
women are consigned the labours of the household
and the field. She arranges the lodge, brings wood
for the fire, cooks, jerks venison and buffalo meat,
dresses the skins of animals killed' in the cbace,
and cultivates the little patch of maize, pump-
kins, and pulse, which furnishes a great part of
their provisions. Their time for repose and recre«
ation is at sunset, when, the labour of the day being
ended, they gather together to amuse themselves
with petty games, or to hold gossiping convoca-
tions on the tops of their lodges. The Indian is
not to be degraded by useful or menial toil. It is
enough that he exposes himself to the hardships of
the chace and the perils of war, that he brings
home food for his family, and watches and fights
for its protection. Everything else is beneath his
attention. When at home, he attends only to his
weapons and his horses, preparing the means of
future exploit, or he engages with his comrades in
games of dexterity, agility, and strength, or in
gambling games in which everything is put at

ii *

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'in 1

? h

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

hazard with a recklessness seldom witnessed in
civilized life.

A great part of the idle leisure of the Indians
when at home is passed in groups, squatted toge-
ther on the bank of a river, on the top of a mound
on the prairie, or on the roof of one of their earth-
covered lodges, talking over the news of the day,
the affairs of the tribe, the event£ and exploits of
their last hunting or fishing expedition, or listening
to the stories of old times, told by some veteran
chronicler. As to the Indian women, they are far
from complaining of their lot. On the contrary,
they would despise their husbands could they stoop
to any menial oflBce, and would think it conveyed
an imputation upon their own conduct. It is the
worst insult one virago can cast upon another in a
moment of altercation: " Infamous woman! I
have seen your husband carrying wood into his
lodge to make the fire. "Where was his squaw,
that he should be obliged to make a woman of
himself?"

These predatory tribes universally use scouts to
be on the look-out, a precaution absolutely neces-
sary to secure them from foray and destruction.
The immense plains they usually inhabit present
a horizon like the ocean, so that any object of im-
portance can be seen at a great distance, owing to
the extreme purity and elasticity of the atmosphere.
The sky has that delicious blue for which the sky
of Italy is renowned ; the sun shines with a splen-
dour unobscured by any cloud or vapour, and their

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

^ *

starlight nights are glorious. It is by these nights
that the Indians compute time. This purity of the
air increases nearer the mountains and on the more
elevated prairies; and thus information may be
communicated to a great distance. The scouts are
stationed on the hills to look out for game and for
enemies, and are in a manner living telegraphs,
conveying their intelligence by concerted signals.
If they wish to give notice of a herd of buffalos in
the plain beyond, they gallop backwards and for-
wards abreast on the summit of the hill. If they
perceive an enemy at hand, they gallop to and fro,
crossing each other, at sight of which the whole
village flies to arms.

In case of svak an alarm the village is in an in-
stant in a state of uproar : men, women, and chil-
dren are brawling and shouting, dogs barking,
yelping, and howling. Some of the warriors run
to gather in their horses from the prairies, and
others for their weapons. As fast as they could
arm and equip they sally forth, some on horse-
back, some on foot — some hastily arrayed in their
war-dress, with coronets of fluttering feathers, and
their bodies smeared with paint ; others naked, and
only furnished with the weapons they had snatched
up. The women and children gather on the slope of
the lodges, and heighten the confusion of the scene
by their vociferation. Old men who can no longer
bear arms take similar positions, and harangue the
warriors as they pass, exhorting them to valorous

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THE OREGON TERRITORY.

^'1'

deeds. Some of the veterans take arms tliem.
selves, and sally forth with tottering steps. In this
way they pour forth helter-skelter, riding and run-
ning with hideous yells and war-whoops, like so
many bedlamites or demoniacs let loose.

On the return of a war-party from a successful
expedition, a warrior, usually the leader, gallops
homeward to announce the fact, and to prepare the
village for their reception by going forth to meet
them on their apiproach. Preparations are imme-
diately made for this great martial ceremony. All
the finery and equipments of the warriors are sent
forth to them that they may appear to the greatest
advantage. In suitable seasons some tribes of
these savages go naked, but they have their gala
dress, of which they are not a little vain. This
usually consists of a gay surcoat and leggings of
the dressed skin of the antelope, resembling
chamois' leather, and embroidered with porcupine
quills brilliantly dyed. A buffalo robe is thrown
over the right shoulder, and across the left is slung
a quiver of arrows. They wear gay coronets of
plumes, particularly those of the swan; but the
feathers of the black eagle are considered the most
worthy, being a sacred bird among the Indian
warriors. He who has killed an enemy in his own
land is entitled to drag at his heels a fox-skin
attached to each mocassin ; and he who has slain
a grizzly bear wears a necklace of his claws, the
most glorious trophy that a hunter can exhibit ;

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

Bid may we not also see in these distinctions
gomething analogous to the origin of armorial bear-
ings in the feudal period of European civilizatior ?
An Indian toilet is an operation of some toil aiid
trouble; the warrior has often to paint himself
from head to foot, and is extremely capricious and
difficult to please as to the hideous distribution of
streaks and colours. During the interval of sus-
pense occupied in these preparations all sports and
business are at a stand-still, excepting that in the
lodges the pains-taking squaws are silently busied
getting ready the repasts for the warriors. At last
a mingled sound of voices and rude music is faintly
heard in the distance, giving] notice that the pro-
cession is on its march. The old men and such of
the squaws as can leave their employments hasten
forth to meet it. It has a wild and picturesque
eflfect as it moves along with measured ste^ >u the
cadence of songs and savage instruments; the
warlike standards and trophies flauntirg aloft, and
the feathers and paint and silver ornaments of the
warriors glaring and glittering in the sunshine.
The bands march in separate bodies under their
several leaders. The warriors on foot come first
in platoons of ten or twelve abreast; then the
horsemen. Each bears its trophies of scalps, ele-
vated on poles, their long black locks streaming in
the wind ; and each is accompanied by its rude
music and minstrelsy. The warriors are variously
armed with bows and arrows and war -clubs, and all
have shields of buffalo hide, a kind of defence ge-

£2

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THE OREGON TERRITORY,

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nerally used by tlie Indians of the open prairies,
who have not the covert of trees and forests to pro-
tect them. They are painted in the most savage
style, and some have the stamp of a red hand across
their mouths, a sign that they had drunk the life-
blood of a foe. As they approach the village, the
old men and women go forth to meet them, and
the scene which now ensues disproves the accounts
of Indian 'apathy and stoicism. Parents and chil-
dren, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, the
bridegroom and his bride, meet with the meet
rapturous expressions of joy, while wailings and
lamentations are heard from the relatives of the
killed and wounded. The procession however con-
tinue- on with slow and measured step in cadence
to the solemn chant, and the warriors maintain their
fixed and stern demeanour. The village soon be-
comes a scene of festivity and triumph. The ban-
ners and trophies and scalps and painted shields are
elevated on poles near the lodges. Then commence
the war-feasts and scalp-dances, with warlike
songs and savage music, while the old heralds go
round from lodge to lodge, promulgating with
loud voices the events of the battle and the exploits
of the different warriors. But in the intervals of
the boisterous revelry of the village other sounds
are heard from the surrounding hills, the piteous
wailings of the women, who retire thither to mourn
in darkness and solitude for those who have fallen
in battle. Thus the same passions and the same
feelings animate humanity under every condition,

THE OBEGON TERRITORY.

howsoever modified by circumstance and civiliza-
tion, lor —

" One touch of Nature
Makes the whole world kin."

Their ardent nature is not only exhibited in war,
but wherever excitement elicits it : thus in the pur-
suit of the elk and the buffalo, in the heat of the
chace, they spare neither themselves nor their steeds,
for they course along the prairies at full speed,
plunging down precipices and frightful ravines,
that threaten the necks of both horse and horseman.
The Indian steed, well trained to the chace, seems
as mad as his rider, and pursues the game as ea-
gerly as if it were his natural prey, on the flesh of
which he was to banquet. In hunting the deer
they ring or surround it, and run them down in a
circle. Their mode of capturing the antelope is
somewhat similar : the women go into the thickest
fields of wormwood, and pulling it up in great
quantities, construct a hedge with it, about three
feet high, enclosing about a hundred acres. A
single opening is left for the admission of the
game. This done, the women conceal themselves
behind the wormwood, and wait patiently for the
coming of the antelopes, which sometimes enter
this spacious trap in considerable numbers. As
80on as they are in, the women give the signal, and
the men hasten to play their part. One only of
them enters the pen at a time, and after chasing
the terrified animals round the enclosure, he is re-
lieved by one of his companions. In this way they

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■ '. -n

THE OREGON TEBBITOBY.

I .

take turns, relieving jach other, and keeping up a
continued pursuit, without fatigue to themselves.
The poor antelopes in the end are so wearied
down that the whole party of men enter and de-
spatch them with clubs, not one escaping that has
entered the enclosure. The most curious circum-
stance in this chace is, that an animal so fleet and
agile as the antelope, and straining for its life,
should range round and round this enclosure with-
out attempting to overleap the low barrier which
surrounds it : such however is said to be the fact,
and such their only mode of hunting the ante-
lope. — ^>'; . ' - ^ -v- ■ -

In their religious notions there appears some
degree of resemblance with those of the tribes fre-
quenting the lower parts of the Columbia. Thus
they believe in the existence of a good and evil
spirit, and consequently in a future state of rewards
and punishments. They hold, that after death the
good Indian goes to a country in which there will
be a perpetual summer ; that he will meet his wife
and children ; that the rivers will abound with fish,
and the plains with the much-loved buffalo ; and that
he will spend his time in hunting and fishing, free
from the terrors of war, or the apprehension of
cold and famine. The bad man they believe will
go to a place covered with eternal snow ; that he
will always be shivering with cold, and will see
fires at a distance that he cannot enjoy ; water
which he cannot procure to quench his thirst ; and
buffalo and deer which he cannot kill to appease

t' «

. THE OREGON TERRITORY.

his hunger. An impenetrable wood, full of wolves,
panthers, and serpents, separates these poor wretches
from their fortunate brethren in the meadows of
ease. Their punishment is not, however, eternal,
and according to the different shades of their
crimes they are sooner or later emancipated, and
permitted to join their friends in the abodes of
tranquillity. Their code of morality, although
short, is comprehensive. They say that bravery,
love of truth, attentii^n to parents, obedience to
their chiefs, and affection for their wives and
children, are the principal virtues which entitle
them to the place of happiness, while the opposite
vices condemn them to that of misery. They have
a curious tradition with respect to beavers, which
they firmly believe are a fallen race of Indians,
who, in consequence of their wickedness, vexed the
Good Spirit, and were condemned by him to their
present shape, but that, in due time, they will be
restored to their humanity. They allege, that he-
beavers have the power of speech, and that they
have heard them talk with each other, and seen
them sitting in council on an offending member.

These are more or less the habits of the several
tribes which frequent the sources and course of all
the branches of th« Columbia, and who are thus
distributed. In the vicinity of its upper waters,
near Mount Brown and Mount Hooker, we find
the Carrier Indians, and about the sources of the
Okanagan, the tribe of the Soushwaps ; the Flat-
heads along its course, and about the vicinity of its

I' ' t

'41':' *.

''hi'

f :

. " I

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

junction with the Columbia, and spreading also
about the confluence of Clarke's River with the
Columbia. In the prairies, embraced within the
converging arms of the Columbia and the Flatbow
river, and along the base of that portion of the
Rt^ky Mountains, we find the Kootanie tribe, and
the tribe of Nez Perces, Shahaptans, or Chip.
anish, occupying the country lying between
Clarke's River and the Salmon River. To the
west of these, and in the angle formed by the Co-
lumbia, adjacent to where it is joined by the Saptin,
the country is occupied by the tribe of Walla
Walla, who give their name to a river which flows
into the Columbia, just below where it receives
the waters of the Saptin. The country [through
which this river, called also Snake, or South Co-
lumbia River, and its numerous tributaries, flow,
is inhabited about the middle of its course by the
Shoshones, or Snake Indians, and to the south of
them is posted the Boonack tribe. West of these,
and south of the Walla Walla tribe, we find the
Cayuse, and variously along the southern defiles
and acclivities and table-lands at the feet of this
southern portion of the Rocky Mountain ridge.
Changing place occasionally to' both slopes of the
range the country is harassed by the predatory
tribes of Crow Indians and Blackfeet Indians,
who thus occupy it at its most accessible pass from
landward, that to which Fremont's name has been
given, near the source of the Sweet Water.

There appears to be no consistent reason why

U t

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

one of these tribes should be called Blackfeet, or
another Flatheads, for the feet of the former are
I no blacker than those of the other tribes, and the
custom of flattening the head, the process of which
[we have previously described, appears to be re-
stricted to some of the piscatory tribes of the
coast. The Shoshones are also called Snake Indians
from their dwelling upon the Saptin or Snake
River, which has received that name from the
multitude of rattlesnakes with which its course
abounds. Of these tribes, the Blackfeet and
Crows appear to be the most ferocious, waging
incessant and exterminating war against the ad-
joining clans. But the Snake Indians bear the
highest character of all, in their unaffected piety
and general kindliness and hospitality.

The chief curb to the ferocious disposition of the
Blackfeet is found in Lhe Boonack tribe, who,
though not of a revengeful disposition, have a
deadly enmity to that tribe, possibly implanted
by their unprovoked aggressions ; and are usually
more than masters for them when their forces are
equal.

Although we have thus located the several tribes
in distinct quarters, we must still understand ihese
Indians to be restless, roving beings, continually
intent on enterprises of war, traffic, and hunting.
Clarke's River or the Shahaptan appears to be the
great thoroughfare for their migrations to and
from the Rocky Mountains, whither they repair

ES^^^?*^

')■ i

, !

Mt ■

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

Ut^'h

i="l

to hunt the buffalo in that vicinity, or to make
war upon their inveterate antagonists.

These appear to be the principal features of the
country and its inhabitants at the period of its
exploration. Its first discovery would seem to
have been made by the great circumnavigator, Sir
Francis Drake, between 1578 and 80, when he gave
to it the name of New Albion ; and this confirmed
must certainly determine the right of possession.
In 1776, Captain Cook more closely inspected a
portion of the coast, and Captain Vancouver in
1792 sailed thither to make a survey of it, and thia
he accomplished for the Straits of Fuca, the dis-
covery of which inlet we have alluded to at the
commencement of this brief description. In
l79.% immediately after Vancouver had sailed
past the mouth of the Columbia or Oregon without
detecting it. Captain Gray, in the ship Columbia,
discovered its entrance, and sailed into it, navi-
gating its estuary for some distance upwards. It
appears that the large prices procured by the furs
conveyed by accident by Captain King to Canton,
drew the attention of the fur companies to this
region, and since which period exploration has
tended thither from Canada and the United States by
the successive fur companies which have collected
those commodities in the Northern parts of Ame-
rica All these distinct trading associations seem
now to have merged in the prevalence of the
Hudson's Bay Company, which holds its monopoly

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

from the crown of England, and is thus a somewhat
parallel instance of a state within a state to that of
the dominion of the East India Company on the
opposite side of the Pacific. Our prolonged de-
scription of the evanescent race of native tribes
leaves us but little space to dilate upon the chief
I allurement of the white men to that inhospitable
region. But we cannot forbear a passing glance
I at the fur trade, which, when we consider the enor-
mous quantity of animal life it annually destroys,
must even become still more evanescent than the
I races which the expansive populousness of civi-
lization threatens eventually to chase from their
I fastnesses in the wildness and mountains, and ex-
punge totally from the face of the earth. But if
this has been hitherto the tendency of European
development throughout America, we have but to
I reflect that a mutual war of extermination is being
carried on by these tribes amongst themselves,
and we may indulge the hope that the humanising
mfluences fostered by the Hudsoti's Bay Company,
whose sway over this region will, without doubt,
be retained by the omnipotent arm of the powerful
empire under whose patronage they enjoy it, will
I tend to check the devastating principles at work.
We also sincerely trust that the predominance of
the Christian religion as inculcated by its emis-
I saries, sanctioned and stimulated by that body, may
eventually curb the entire sanguinary spirit of -all
I these tribes, even as it seems already to have
worked some effect upon several of them, and

'm I (1

i;l !-

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

'4M

'4}

t n

■*!

I* '^

ill •■
'I ■

that its precepts and doctrines, by their benign'
spirit, may render them capable of the full enjoy-
ment of all its cheering prospects, and with these
conjunctively of the highest condition and hap-
piness of civilization.

The fur trade, like all large branches of com-
merce, has peculiar and distinctive features, which
are enhanced in this instance by the nature of the
occupation. It has to do with the wild natives of
the woods, and the mountains, and the plains, and the
lakes, and the rivers ; and its produce is the skins of
animals who will not bear man's yoke, and must
therefore be sought in their native haunts and re-
treats. The pride and ostentation of man seek
gratification on every hand, and whatever can lend
lustre to his vanity is prized, and bears its price in
relation to the difficulty of obtaining it, especially
where beauty is combined with rarity. Thus the
skins of those animals which are most difficult to
find bear the highest price, and of course are sought
for with the greatest eagerness by those who hunt
them. Collecting these skins has given rise to
four distinct classes of men, whose lives are a suc-
cession of romantic incidents passed as they are in
the fastnesses of primitive nature, or in intercourse
with the scarcely less primitive savages, who are
their only occasional occupants. These men are
technically called voyageurs, hunters, trappers,
and mountaineers, according to the nature of the
peculiar branch of the trade they pursue. They
ire usually in the pay of a fur company, or some-

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

times traffic with it on their o account ; but
even so their accumulation of skins comes thus
into the general dep6t. These voyageurs are a
species of carriers, who have sprung out of the fur
trade as conveyancers of these precious merchan-
dise along the interior waters to their final place of
deposit ; but being little occupied in the trade of
the Oregon territory, and as we must hasten to a
conclusion, we shall not enlarge upon their de-
scription. The trappers are, as their name indi-
cates, occupied in trapping animals, and especially
beavers, upon the different streams which intersect
tliis country. Wanderers of the wilderness, ac-
cording to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the mi-
grations of animals, and the plenty or scarcity of
game, they lead a precarious and unsettled ex-
istence, exposed to sun and storm, and all kinds of
hardships, until they resemble the Indians in com-
plexion as well as in tastes and habits. From time
to time they bring the peltries — the technical name
derived from the French for furs — to the trading-
houses of the Company, in whose employ they
have been brought up ; and here they traffic them
away for such articles of merchandise or ammuni-
tion as they may stand in need of. Being con-
stantly exposed to the casualties of Indian foray,
they- have been taught by necessity, that parent of
invention, to conceal the produce of their success,
as well as their necessaries of ammunition, pro-
vision, &c., whilst upon prolonged expeditions,
far, far away in the heart of the wilderness, to pre-

■4

P'~-'

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

II. -^n^!

VI-

' -I

vent their being carried off by the Indians, with
whom they are usually in a state of incessant hos-
tility, in places called technically caches, from the
French verb cacher, to hide; but although a
European term has been applied to these places of
deposit, they were in use by the natives long before
the intrusion of the white men upon their soil. It
is in fact the only mode that migratory hordes
have of preserving their valuables from robbery
during their long absences from their villages or
accustomed haunts on hunting expeditions, or
during the vicissitudes of war. The utmost skill and
caution are required to render these places of con-
cealment invisible to the lynx eye of an Indian.
The first care is to seek out a proper situation,
which is generally some dry low bank of clay, on
the margin of a water-course. As soon as the pre-
cise spot is pitched upon, blankets, saddlecloths,
and other coverings are spread over the surround-
ing grass and bushes, to prevent foot tracks or any
other derangement. A circle of about two feet in
diameter is then nicely cut in the sod, which is
carefully removed, with the loose soil immediately
beneath it, and laid aside in a place where it will
be safe from anything that may change its appear-
ance. It is then dug down and enlarged within to
the size required. The cave being thus formed, it
is well lined with dry grass, bark, sticks, and poles,
and occasionally a dried hide. The property in-
tended to be hidden is then laid in, and it is covered
over by the sod previously removed. All tracks

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

I are carefully obliterated, and it is frequently
I sprinkled with water to destroy the scent lest the
I wolves and bears should be attracted to the place
and root up the concealed treasure ; and the place
is not revisited until there be a necessity for
opening the cache. To the hunter his horse is as
essential as to the mountaineer his rifle. In the
daytime, while engaged on the prairie cutting up
the deer or buffalo he has slain, he depends upon
his faithful horse as a sentinel. The sagacious
animal sees and smells all around him, and by his
starting and whinnying gives notice of the approach
of strangers. There seems to be a dumb commu-
nion and fellowship between the hunter and his
horse. They mutually rely upon each other for
company and protection, and nothing is more diffi-
cult, it is said, than to surprise an experienced
hunter on the prairie, while his old and favourite
steed is at his side. The mountaineer has equally
his companion in his rifle, for it is essential to his
security in the vicissitudes of his hazardous life.
On going from lodge to lodge to visit his comrades
he takes it with him. On seating himself in a
lodge he lays it beside him ready to be snatched
up ; when he goes out, he takes it up as regularly
as a citizen would his walking-staff. His rifle is
his constant friend and protector. These moun-
taineers have sprung up from the nature of the
trade they pursue. Trading and trapping they
scale the vast mountain chains, and pursue their
hazardous vocations amidst these wild recesses.

F 2

« I

»^ ■*■■'■• ■■J' ■■ '

■11

If 4 r

ti- ]

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

They move from place to place on horseback. The
equestrian exercise in which they are continually
engaged, the nature of the countries they traverse
vast plains and mountains, pure and exhilarating
in their atmosphere, seem to make them physically
and mentally a lively and mercurial race. They
are hardy, lithe, vigorous, and active, extravagant
in word and thought and deed ; heedless of hard-
ships, daring of danger, prodigal of the present, and
thoughtless of the future.

The following table gives an account of one year's
produce of furs, obtained either through the instru-
mentality of these men, or by direct trade with the
Indians, who have learnt by degrees the advantages
that result from commercial intercourse with the
white men who have settled among them : —

Bear .

• • •

2,100

Beaver

• • •

. 106,000

Buffalo

• • ■

500

Deer .

• • •

750

Ditto, dressed

1,200

Elk .

700

Fisher

1,650

Fox .

1,000

Kitt fox

4,000

Lynx

6,000

Marten

32,000

Muskwash

17,000

Mink .

1,800

Otter .

4,600

Raccoon

100

Wolverine

600

Wolf .

3,800

This country, known but so short a time, is now
sprinkled with stations, and posts, and forts by the
Hudson's Bay Company, for the conjoint purposes

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

ack. The

100

000

500

750

200

700

350

)00

100

ne, IS now

rts by the

purposes

of trading and protecting its servants. The chief
jcttlement is Fort Vancouver, on the north bank
of the Columbia, ninety miles from the sea. Dr.
M'Loughlin, the Governor of the territory, resides
here. It is an enclosure thirty-seven rods long,
and eighteen wide, strongly stockaded, within
which are eight substantial buildings and many
smaller ones. This place has a considerable farm-
ing establishment. There are large fertile prairies
which they occupy for tillage and pasture, and
forests for fencing materials and other purposes.
They have a garden of five acres, abounding with
vegetables and fruit, as peaches, apples, grapes,
strawberries ; and figs, oranges, and lemons have
also been introduced. They have a flour mill
worked by ox-power, and a saw mill from which
boards are sent even to the Sandwich Islands.
There is a chapel for divine service, a school for
children belonging to the establishment, and shops
for blacksmiths, joiners, carpenters, and other me-
chanical trades. Fort George, or Astoria, is eight
miles from the mouth of the Columbia. It has
two buildings and a garden of two acres. Fort
Walla Walla is on the south side of the Colum-
bia, ten miles below the entrance of Lewis's River.
Fort Colvin, on the south side of Clarke's River,
below the Kettle falls, just before it enters the Co-
lumbia. This also has a considerable farming
establishment. Fort Okonagan, at the entrance
into the Columbia, of the river of that name, 100
miles below Clarke's River. The Hudson's Bay

III

THE OREGON TERRITORY.

Company have also several other trading ports in
this territory. And on the Wallemette, fifty-five
miles above its entrance into the Columbia, is
M'Kay's settlement ; and twelve miles above is
Jarvis's settlement, which contains numerous fami-
lies, which consist mostly of retiring servants of
the Hudson's Bay Company, with their half-breed
families and a few Americans. It is to this river,
and the valley watered by it, that the course of
American emigration has tended. The American
Missionary board has also several stations in this
country, one at Astoria, another at Multnomia, a
third on the Columbia about 140 miles from its
mouth, a fourth at Puget's Sound, a fifth at Walle-
mette, another at Clatsop, and another at the
Umqua, a river which empties itself into the Pa-
cific, about 200 mi^es below the Columbia.

To compress into so close a compass the various
features of so large a country, renders inevitable
the omission of some ; but such have been selected
as were thought would give the best idea of the
nature of the region, combined with what should
also prove most interesting and instructive in the
perusal.

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