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borric's; and those tliut lie saw manifested no alarm at his pi-csence, -which 

 wouhl indnce the idea that others had fled in consequence of his approach. 

 Besides the quantity of bones which he met with in different pUiees, and 

 more particularly the neglect with which they were treated, indicated the 

 recent presence of some pestilence. As neai-ly corresponding with the time 

 when Lewis and Clarke supposed the small-pox to have visited the Dalles, 

 it is not improbable that this disease had prevailed here also, though Van- 

 couver does not speak of its marks upon the survivors as being very recent. 

 War could not have been the cause of siu-h widespread effects, as their hos- 

 tilities never resulted in nuicli bloodshed within a short time, though acting 

 as a steady check on population. After Vancouver's visit, there must have 

 been a very considerable increase, which according to Indian account, has 

 been since, at two or three different times, affected by epideiuic diseases. 



In the district referred to, there are at this time over 5,000 Indians; 

 and while the tribes lower down the sound are increasing, as appears by the 

 number of children, others in more intimate connection with the whites have 

 greatly fnllen off, and some are nearly extinct. It would seem, therefore, 

 as if constant fluctuations from natural causes, not arising out of the settle- 

 ment of the country, had existed among them from an early time, and the 

 inference would be that their total number had never greatly exceeded that 

 which they have reached since the discovery. Too great stress is not to be 

 laid upon the assertion of the Indians themselves that they were once a great 

 many, for their ideas of number are vague at the best, and the recollection 

 of any former mortality would probably be exaggerated, while the after- 

 increase would be disregarded. I should consider a population of 8,000 for 

 the tribes within the Straits of Fuca as the utmost which they have ever 

 reached. ]\Ir. Finlayson, of the Hudson Bay Company, made a count of 

 the Klallam in 1845, and ascertained their numbers to be 1,7G0. Taking 

 this as their maximum at any one time, the total number of Indians in this 

 Territory, west of the Cascade Mountains, during their most flourishing 

 epoch, and on the supposition that the condition existed simultaneously to 

 all of them, woidd amount to 26,800, or about three times their present 

 number. This seems to me as great a body as the country could have 

 supported according to their modes of life, and certainly is in itself formid- 



