CHAPTER XII. 



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 super- 

 structure was given by bending twigs of hazel. These were covered 

 with a plastic clay, which was found in abundance in the neighbour- 

 hood. 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 completed 

 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 theo- 

 dolite 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, and visited all 



VOL. IV. 2K 52 (409) 



