THE INTERIOR OF OREGON. 461 



monthly change being 72° ; while the greatest daily range was 58°. 

 Mr. Spalding remarks, that, since his residence, no two years have 

 been alike. The grass remains green all the year round. In their 

 cultivation, irrigation is necessary ; and the wheat fields, as well as 

 those of vegetables, &c, were treated in this way. Indian corn suc- 

 ceeds well. 



Among the other duties of Mr. Spalding, he has taught the Indians 

 the art of cultivation, and many of them now have plantations. The 

 idea of planting seeds had never occurred to the Oregon Indians before 

 the arrival of the missionaries. Mr. Spalding kindly lends them his 

 ploughs and other implements of husbandry: and on a difficulty 

 occurring with some of them, he had only to threaten them with the 

 loss of the plough, to bring the refractory person to reason. One of 

 the Indians had entirely abandoned his former mode of life, had built 

 himself a log cabin, and both himself and wife were neatly dressed in 

 European costume. The women are represented as coming a distance 

 of many miles to learn to spin and knit, and assist Mrs. Spalding in 

 her domestic avocations. 



Mr. Spalding gave his assembled flock some account of the Expe- 

 dition, and a short sketch of the people we had seen, which the Indians 

 listened to with great interest, and appeared to comprehend perfectly, 

 with the aid of a map. 



Mr. Spalding stated, that the number of Oregon Indians whom he 

 had ascertained to have visited the United States was surprising. He 

 informed our gentlemen that he had sent letters to Boston in eighty- 

 one days from the Dalles, by means of Indians and the American 

 rendezvous ; and, what was remarkable, the slowest part of the route 

 was from St. Louis to Boston. The communication is still carried on 

 by Indians, although it was generally supposed to be by the free trap- 

 pers. He considers that these tribes, both men and women, are an 

 industrious people. 



Our thanks were due to Mr. Spalding for his kindness in exchanging 

 horses, which enabled our party to proceed more comfortably, and to 

 carry forward their collections. 



On the 26th, they left the mission at Lapwai, accompanied by the 

 missionaries and their ladies, intending to visit some of the rude farms 

 of the natives. These are situated in a fertile valley, running in a 

 southerly direction from the Kooskooskee. The farms are from five 

 to twelve acres each, all fenced in, and on these the Indians cultivate 

 wheat, corn, potatoes, melons, pumpkins, &c. One of them, in the 

 year 1840, raised four hundred bushels of potatoes and forty-five 

 bushels of wheat. With part of the potatoes he bought enough buffalo- 



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