32 GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON, 



kinds; immediately behind it are a garden and orchard, and behind these 

 is the farm, of about six hundred acres, with barns and all other necessary 

 buildings. West of the fort are the hospital and houses for the voyageurs 

 and Indians ; about two miles lower down the river are the dairy and 

 piggery, with numerous herds of cattle, hogs, &c. ; and about three miles 

 above the fort are water-mills for grinding corn and sawing plank, and 

 sheds for curing salmon. The number of persons usually attached to the 

 post is not less than seven hundred, of whom more than half are Indians 

 of the country, the others being natives of Great Britain, Canadians, and 

 half-breeds. The whole establishment is governed nearly on the plan of 

 one of the small towns of Central Europe during the middle ages; the 

 stockade fort representing the baronial castle, in which the great digni- 

 taries of the company exercise almost absolute authority. 



Fort George, at the distance of ten miles from the Pacific, on the 

 south bank of the Columbia, occupies the site of a trading establishment 

 called Astoria, formed by the Americans in 1811, which was taken by 

 the British during the war in 1813, and, though subsequently restored in 

 virtue of the treaty of Ghent, has never since been re-occupied by citizens 

 of the United States. The first buildings were destroyed by fire in 1820 ; 

 after which, some small houses were erected by the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany on the same spot, where a trader and three or four other persons 

 generally reside. Fort Umqua is near the mouth of the Umqua River, 

 which enters the Pacific about a hundred and eighty miles south of 

 the Columbia, and affords a harbor for small vessels. Fort Nasqually is 

 at the mouth of a little river emptying into Puget's Sound, the southern- 

 most part of the great bay called Admiralty Inlet, which extends south- 

 wardly into the continent from the Strait of Fuca : near it the Hudson's 

 Bay Company has large farms, which are said to be in a prosperous 

 condition ; this place is also the seat of a Roman Catholic mission, 

 under the direction of a bishop in partibus, (the bishop of Juliopolis,) 

 whose influence is, no doubt, important to the company, as the majority 

 of its servants are of that religion. Fort Langley is at the entrance of 

 Fraser's River into the eastern extremity of the Strait of Fuca, in lati- 

 tude of 49 degrees 25 minutes ; farther north is Fort M'Loughlin, on 

 Milbank Sound, and Fort Simpson, on Douglas Island, in the North- 

 West Archipelago, in latitude 54£ degrees. The company has moreover 

 made an agreement with the Russians, who claim the coasts and islands 

 north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, by which the British 

 traders enjoy the exclusive use of the coasts of the continent, extending 

 from that parallel to Cape Spenser, near the 58th degree; and a post has 

 been in consequence established near the mouth of the Stikine, a large 

 river emptying into the channel called Prince Frederick's Sound, in the 

 latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes. 



In the interior of the continent, the Hudson's Bay Company has on the 

 Columbia, above its falls, Fort Walla-Walla, or Nez-Perce, on the east 

 side of the northern branch, near its confluence with the southern ; Fort 

 Okinagan, at the entrance of the Okinagan River into the north or main 

 branch; Fort Colville, near the Kettle Falls; and some others, of less 

 consequence. On the Lewis, or great southern branch, are Fort Boise, 

 at the mouth of the Boise, or Reed's River, and Fort Hall, at the en- 

 trance of the Portneuf. North of the Columbia country are Fort Al- 

 exandria, on Fraser's River, and others on the lakes, which abound in 



