418 POPULATION. [1841. 



In fossils, but little variety is presented. Basalt is the 

 principal rock. Granite, limestone, and sandstone, are found 

 in small quantities, and specimens of white marble have 

 been obtained in the upper country, while at the extreme 

 north freestone is abundant. Appearances would indicate 

 the possession of vast stores of mineral wealth, but these 

 are deceptive. Coal, however, exists in great abundance in 

 the Cascade Range, and iron and platina have been dis- 

 covered, though thev cannot be said to abound. 



(2.) In 1S45, the Indian population of Oregon was estimated 

 to be about twenty-seven thousand, and that of the whites 

 at from three to five thousand. The numbers of the former, 

 since that time, as in previous .years, have been rapidly 

 diminishing, mainly from disease, though the aggregate has 

 probably been nearly kept up by the white immigration. 

 The principal Indian tribes, commencing at the north, are 

 the Spokans, Flatheads, Nisqually Indians, Cayuses, Nez 

 Perces, Callapooah Indians, and Shoshones. Most of these 

 tribes have generally been on good terms with the white 

 settlers, and some of them have been partially civilized, have 

 abandoned their roving habits, and commenced the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil ; but the lawless bands of Cayuses roam- 

 ing through the upper valley of the Columbia, were for a 

 long time a source of great annoyance to the parties of im- 

 migrants arriving in the country, and the latter were re- 

 peatedly attacked by them. In November, 1847, the Pres- 

 byterian Mission at Walla- Walla was attacked by these sav- 

 ages, fourteen persons were killed and sixty-one wounded, and 

 all the houses at the station burnt down or destroyed. Im- 

 mediately upon the occurrence of this event, troops were 

 raised in the lower towns, and in the following January, the 

 Indians were defeated in a scries of bloody engagements, and 

 their villages burnt to the ground. Since that time peace 

 and harmony have for the most part prevailed. 



The white population is of a mixed character. There are 

 immigrants from almost every state in the Union, employes 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company, hunters, trappers, and half- 



