182 



any conclusion, it is necessary to regard not merely the actual facts of 

 increase or mortality known to us, but the capacity of the country to fur- 

 nish subsistence, the modes of obtaining it followed by the Indians, their 

 general character and habits, their fecundity, their wai-s, and various other 

 circumstances directly or indirectly bearing upon life. That the estimates, 

 even of residents, cannot be relied upon with confidence, has been made 

 sufficiently evident by the discrepancies in our different attempts at an actual 

 enumeration, and those of travelers, like Lewis and Clarke, are likely to 

 have been still wider from the fact. Still, as no other data exist upon 

 which to found any opinion, w-e are driven to assume these for the purpose 

 of discussion. 



The population of the Columbia, below the Cascades, was very probably 

 at its height early in the present century. None of the early writers men- 

 tion the indications of previous mortality as remarkable in extent; and this 

 negative evidence is almost conclusive when taken in connection with their 

 subsequent multiplication between 1820 and 1830. Lewis and Clarke, in 

 1806, estimated the total number at about 8,500, which is within the bounds 

 of probability. They in fact seem to have rather underrated the four 

 lower bands of Tsinidi, whom they place at 1,100 souls, wllereas Mr. 

 Irving, on the authority of the fur-traders, but a few years later, gives their 

 number of warriors alone at 554, a force requiring a much larger total. 

 Tlie same period may also be assumed as the date of greatest prosperity of 

 the tribes on the coast and on the Kowlitz and the Tsihalis Rivers. The 

 estimate of the former, founded on Indian authority and aided by the 

 reported number of houses, gives a total of 4,300, not an excessive one, if 

 the Makah are included, as seems to be the case. Of the Kowlitz and 

 Upper Tsihalis, who are not mentioned by them, 4,000 may be admitted as 

 the exti'eme. 



According to Vancouver, it would appear that the Sound tribes had 

 suffered from some great calamity previous to his visit in the spring of 1792. 

 In all those waters from Port Discovery to head of the sound, during a 

 minute survey, he did not meet with over 1,200 Indians, and at least half of 

 these must have belonged to the Skagit and Snohomish. The season of 

 the year was too early fur tliuiu to have left the water in seaix-h of roots and 



