TRAVELS IN OREGON, NO.l. 44] 
complete reverse. The officers, agents and servants of 
the Hudson’s Bay Company organized another company, 
called the Puget Sound Company, the shares of which 
are held exclusively by themselves, and the officers 
chosen from among their number. Dr. McLaughlin, for 
instance, chief officer and Governor of Fort Vancouver 
for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Director of the Pu¬ 
get Sound Company, has the entire management of its 
concerns, receiving therefor a salary of five hundred 
pounds. The nominal capital of the Puget Sound Com¬ 
pany is five hundred thousand pounds, but as two hun¬ 
dred thousand pounds were found sufficient for the ope¬ 
rations of the company, no more was paid in. They 
began by making large importations of stock from Cali¬ 
fornia, and some of the best breed of cattle from England. 
They have also entered into farming on an extensive 
scale, using as laborers the servants of the Hudson’s Bay 
Company, who are bound by their contracts to do all 
manner of service that may be required of them, even to 
the bearing of arms. Almost all the trading establish¬ 
ments of the Hudson’s Bay Company have been changed 
into large agricultural ones, and all their stations and 
forts and the Russian ports are supplied by this means 
with wheat, butter and cheese. The Russians take an¬ 
nually fifteen thousand bushels of wheat. The directors 
of the company expect to succeed in breeding a sufficient 
stock of cattle and sheep to enable them to export hides, 
horn, tallow and wool to England in the return ships, 
which hitherto have left the coast comparatively empty, 
as the furs occupy only a small part of the ship. The 
surplus of wheat that they now raise has reduced the 
price of that article so low that the farmers some¬ 
times feed their horses with it rather than try to find a 
market. 
The scenery around Nisqually embraces a splendid 
panorama, with Mount Rainier rising nearly east of it. 
