CHAPTER XI I. 



PUGET SOUND AND OKONAGAN. 

 1841. 



On my return to Nisqually, my first care had reference to our pro- 

 vision of bread. This I found to be so far expended as to make it 

 necessary to economize it by every means in my power, if I wished 

 to avoid its falling short. I therefore determined to attempt to have 

 fresh bread baked. With this view I had an oven built upon a 

 plan borrowed from the steam-holes of the Indians. The bottom of 

 the oven was formed upon a stage of plank, and the shape of the 

 superstructure was given by bending twigs of hazel. These were 

 covered with a plastic clay, which was found in abundance in the 

 neighbourhood. A dough-trough was hollowed out of the trunk of a 

 large tree. When the oven and trough were ready, another difficulty 

 was to be overcome, for we had no bakers. This was remedied, 

 however, by the assistance of our stewards and cooks; and two sailors 

 instructed by them were appointed to take charge of the bakery. We 

 now began to bake daily, and succeeded so well after a day or two, 

 that the whole ship's company was daily supplied with full rations 

 of soft bread, causing an important saving in our store of sea-biscuit. 



I learned, immediately upon my return, that the surveys under Lieu- 

 tenant-Commandant Ringgold and Lieutenant Case, were making 

 rapid progress. The former, with the force under him, had com- 

 pleted a large portion of Admiralty Inlet; the latter had finished 

 Hood's Canal, and had returned to take up the survey of Puget 

 Sound. A report having been made to me, that one of the eye-pieces 

 of the theodolite had been lost in Hood's Canal, Lieutenant Budd 

 was ordered to relieve Lieutenant Case, and the latter was despatched 

 to search for it. Lieutenant Case proceeded in a boat well armed. 



