420 INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 



all of one story, and built of square logs. The whole was once surrounded by a stockade, form 

 ing a square of about seventy yards on each side. This had been removed, except on the north, 

 where it encloses a narrow yard containing offices. One bastion remains. About thirty yards 

 in the rear of this square are the cattle-yard, hay-sheds, &c., enclosing a space of forty by sixty 

 yards, roughly fenced in, and the sheds covered with bark. On the left of the front are seven 

 huts, occupied by the lower employes of the company ; they are of rude construction and much 

 decaved. On the right of the square, in the rear, at a distance of a few hundred yards, are three 

 more buildings, used for storing produce. 



Besides the principal establishment, there is a cattle-post, about nine miles distant, on the 

 stream laid down as the Slawntehus, and a grist-mill of one pair of stones, three miles off, on the 

 same stream. The latter is said to be in pretty good order, and the water to serve all the year 

 round. Here, formerly, the ilour for the northern posts was ground from wheat raised on the 

 company s farm. This farm was once pretty extensive, but only a small portion is cultivated at 

 present. 



Fort Colville was once the post of a chief factor, the highest officer in charge of a station, and 

 here the annual accounts of the whole country were consolidated previous to transmission across 

 the mountains. The present force consists only of Mr. McDonald, chief clerk, a trader, and 

 about twenty Canadians and Iroquois Indians. In former years goods were sent through this 

 post to those north of the line, but this route is now abandoned. The amount of furs collected 

 here is not large, and comes chiefly from the upper Columbia. They are principally bear, 

 beaver, muskrat, marten, and fox skins. The beaver is not considered to be worth in London 

 more than its cost when laid down there. 



About fifteen Canadians are settled on claims in this neighborhood, chiefly on the Slawntehus. 

 They are former servants of the company whose time has expired, and who intend to be natu 

 ralized. 



Below Fort Colville is Fort Okinakane, situated on a leve] plain on the right bank of the Co 

 lumbia, a little above the mouth of the Okinakane river, and not far from the site of one of Mr. 

 Astor s posts. The fort consists of three small houses, enclosed with a stockade. There were 

 formerly some outbuildings, but they have been suffered to decay. There is no appearance of 

 business here, and no goods on hand. One trader, a Canadian, was the only white man on the 

 ground when we visited it. A few furs only are taken, and the post probably does not pay its 

 expenses. It was once of consequence as a. stopping place for the bateaux passing to and from 

 Fort Colville, but is now kept up apparently for form s sake. We learned that the price of such 

 furs as were taken here was, for a black fox-skin, a quarter of a yard of red cloth, or a red cock 

 tail plume ; for marten or red fox, ten charges of powder and ball; for beaver, otter, or bear 

 skins, thirty charges. 



Fort Kontamie, upon the great bend of the Flatbow river, and not far from the Fkithead lake, 

 is an inferior post, in charge of a Canadian as trader and postmaster, with one Canadian and a 

 half-breed under him. 



The above constitutes all the posts situated in the country east of the Cascades and north of 

 46. It may be worth while to include the rest of those in American territory. 



There are in Oregon and east of the mountains only two Fort Hall, on the head of the Snake 

 river; and Fort Boisee upon the same, nearly opposite the mouth of the Owy-hee. The latter 

 is merely a stopping place, occupied by a trader arid a few Kanakas. The former is a more 

 important one, from its opportunities for trade with the emigrants and with the Salt lake. Of 

 the present condition of this I am not informed; but it is only a third-rate post. 



West of the Cascades, in Oregon Territory, the principal is Fort Umpqua, on the Umpqua 

 river. This was destroj ed by fire two or three years since; but to what extent, since rebuilt, 

 I do not know. The rest consist of a house and granary at Champoes, on the Willamette; one 

 acre of ground below the falls of Oregon City, purchased from an American, a farmer ; 640 acres 



