338 COLUMBIA RIVER. 



though they have obtained the general name of the Cowlitz Indians. 

 In a few years they will have passed away, and even now, I was in- 

 formed, there are but three Indian women remaining in the tribe. 

 The mortality that has attacked them of late has made sad ravages ; 

 for only a few years since they numbered upwards of a hundred, while 

 they are now said to be less than thirty. The quantity of land actually 

 under cultivation here is six hundred acres, most of which is in wheat. 

 Mr. Forrest told me that the first year it had produced ten bushels per 

 acre, but the present one it was thought the yield would be double.* 



Around the superintendent's house is a kitchen-garden, in which 

 all the usual horticultural plants of the United States were growing 

 luxuriantly ; the climate was thought to be particularly well adapted 

 to them. 



Mr. Forrest informed me that the weather was never actually cold, 

 nor is the winter long. Snows seldom last more than a day or two ; 

 fires, however, are necessary during most months of the year. The 

 housing of cattle is resorted to partially ; but little or no provision is 

 made for their winter sustenance, as the grass is fit for food the whole 

 year round. 



The geographical situation of the Cowlitz Farm is in latitude 46° 

 30' N., longitude 123° W. 



The guide that Mr. Forrest had sent for was one Simon Plu- 

 mondon, whom I engaged to carry us to Astoria. He proved to have 

 been the cockswain of General Cass's canoe, when on his trip to the 

 lakes in the Northwest Territory ; and a more useful person I have 

 seldom met with, or one that could be so well depended on. He had 

 been for several years in this territory, having left the Company's 

 service, married an Indian wife, and was now living on a farm of 

 about fifty acres, at the Cowlitz, independent and contented. I have 

 seldom seen so pretty a woman as his wife, or a more cheerful and 

 good housewife ; before her marriage she was the belle of the country, 

 and celebrated for her feats of horsemanship. 



Plumondon engaged several of the young Indians to accompany 

 him, and with two canoes we were all accommodated. The price 

 for each Indian was to be a check shirt. 



During our short stay at Cowlitz, several Indian women brought 

 in pieces of buckskin for sale, which they deem a necessary part of 



* The crop of 1841, I was told, at the end of the season, produced seven thousand 

 bushels. 



