COLUMBIA RIVER. 329 



I have mentioned these agricultural establishments as connected 

 with the Hudson Bay Company, and they are in reality so ; but as 

 their charter precludes their engaging in these operations, another 

 company has been organized, under the title of the " Puget Sound 

 Company," the shares of which are held by the officers, agents, and 

 servants of the Hudson Bay Company, and its officers are ex- 

 clusively chosen from among them. Dr. M'Laughlin, for instance, 

 chief officer and governor of Fort Vancouver, on the part of the 

 Hudson Bay Company, is also a director of the Puget Sound Com- 

 pany, and has the entire management of its concerns : his salary is 

 five hundred pounds. 



The capital of the Puget Sound Company is five hundred thousand 

 pounds, divided into shares of one hundred pounds each : only two 

 hundred thousand pounds of this have been paid in. The operations 

 of this Company are in consequence large : they began by making 

 large importations of stock from California, and some of the best 

 breeds of cattle from England ; they have also entered into farming on 

 an extensive scale, using as labourers the servants of the Hudson 

 Bay Company, who are bound by their contracts to do all manner 

 of service that may be required of them, even to the bearing of 

 arms. 



This Company have the supplying of all the forts and stations of the 

 Hudson Bay Company on the west side of the American continent, and 

 also furnish the Russian ports with grain, butter, and cheese : of the 

 former article the Russians take about fifteen thousand bushels. It 

 is also their intention, when they shall have succeeded in breeding a 

 sufficient stock of cattle and sheep, to export hides, horns, tallow, and 

 wool, to England, in the return ships, which now go home compara- 

 tively empty, as the furs occupy only a small portion of the capacity 

 of the ship. In this way it may readily be perceived that they will 

 be enabled to drive a profitable trade, particularly when it is con- 

 sidered how little care the cattle require in this territory, in conse- 

 quence of the grass and natural hay which the soil affords at all 

 seasons. It is the prospect of the advantageous results to be derived 

 from these operations, that has induced the Hudson Bay Company 

 to change their trading establishments into large agricultural ones. 

 For some years previous to our arrival, they had not been able to 

 meet their own wants, and at the same time fulfil their contracts with 

 the Russians. They were therefore obliged to purchase from the 

 settlers in the territory, as well as send to California, to procure the 



VOL. IV. 83 



