THE INTERIOR OF OREGON. 479 



of New Caledonia, are very extensive, and in this section they have 

 nine posts. 



At Colville, the number of beaver-skins purchased is but small, 

 and the packs which accrue annually from it and its two outposts, 

 Koutanie and Flathead, with the purchases made by a person who 

 travels through the Flathead country, amount only to forty, including 

 the bear and wolf skins. Muskrats, martens, and foxes, are the kinds 

 most numerous in this neighbourhood. The outposts above-men- 

 tioned are in charge of a Canadian trader, who receives his outfit 

 from Colville. 



Fort Chillcoaten is a clerk's station, in latitude 52° 10' N., on the 

 Chillcoaten branch of Fraser's river. The Chillcoatens are a small 

 tribe, numbering about sixty families, and only four packs of peltries 

 are made by them. A pack is equal to fifty-five beaver-skins of large 

 size : a beaver-skin costs one foot and a half of tobacco (rolled kind), 

 or six are bought for a blanket. 



At Fort Alexandria, in latitude 52° 30' N., the point where the 

 navigation of Fraser's river is begun by the northern brigade, on their 

 way north, a chief trader resides. Twenty or thirty packs are made 

 here, seven of which are beaver. A few cattle are kept at Alexandria, 

 about which is the only small open space in the northern country that 

 is cleared, the rest being covered with a dense forest, consisting prin- 

 cipally of different species of firs, with some birch, willow, alder, 

 poplar, and maple trees. The Niscotins are a small tribe, and 

 number but twenty families. 



Fort George is another station, at the junction of Stuart's and 

 Fraser's rivers. It has a few cattle, and provides during the year a 

 few packs. A clerk of the Company is stationed there. 



Fort Thompson, on the Kamloops river, lies in 50° 38' N., longitude 

 120° 7' 10" W. Fraser's, Babine, and M'Leod's, on the lakes of 

 the same names, together with that of Fort St. James, on Stuart's 

 Lake, the residence of Mr. Ogden, are all places of trade, and yield a 

 profitable return for the expenditure and labour employed in main- 

 taining them. All these, as I have before stated, are under the 

 direction of Mr. Ogden, who is a chief factor, and has charge of the 

 department of New Caledonia. The Company are now extending 

 their posts to the northward, behind the Russian settlements, where 

 an officer of the Company (Mr. Campbell) has been exploring. 

 During the summer, the travelling in this country is performed on 

 horseback or in canoes ; but in winter, when the ground is covered 



