316 NISQUALLY AND COLUMBIA RIVER. 



is a very necessary precaution in Oregon, in consequence of the 

 numerous wolves that are prowling about; in some places it becomes 

 necessary for the keeper to protect his beasts even in the daytime. 

 The cattle, at times, suffer from drought, in which case the Indians 

 are sent across the river to cut fodder for them, in order to avoid 

 sending the cattle to the cammass plains, where they would be subject 

 to the loss of all their young. 



The farm at the Cowlitz has no sort of defences about it, proving, 

 as far as the Indians are concerned, that there is no danger of beinc 

 molested: indeed their numbers here are too small to enable them to 

 attempt any aggression, and their dependence on the Company, for 

 both food and clothing, too complete to allow them to quarrel, except 

 among themselves ; and of such disputes the agent of the Company 

 takes no sort of notice. The Indians belong to the Klackatack tribe, 

 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 luxu- 

 riantly ; 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 Plumondon, 

 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 



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

 bushels. 



