480 
TRAVELS IN OREGON, NO. 2 . 
the Wallawalla, where the water passing along the east 
shore, near the fort, is too warm to drink. When they 
desire to have cold water for drinking it is necessary to 
get it from the middle of the river by a canoe. 
In May, 1841, Lieutenant Johnson, with a party of 
companions attached to the Exploring Expedition, set out 
on a journey to Okanagan, on the Columbia, by the way 
of the Cascade Mountains below Nisqually. The per¬ 
severance and prudence of Lieutenant Johnson were 
displayed to great advantage in the successful prosecu¬ 
tion of this expedition over the mountains, the possibility 
of which was very much doubted. After great toil and 
difficulty he reached Okanagan. This post and Spokane 
were the first establishments of the American Fur Com¬ 
pany in Oregon. It was transferred first to the North¬ 
west Company, and then to the Hudson’s Bay Company, 
but it is now falling to decay, being only kept up as a 
depot for supplies in connexion with the northern parts 
of New California. Few furs are found in this neigh¬ 
borhood—this part of Middle Oregon being remarkable 
for the scarcity of game and fur animals. After exam¬ 
ining the country of the Okanagan, Lieutenant Johnson 
extended his observations over a large extent of country, 
of which the most important post is Fort Colville. This 
is situated on the east bank of the Columbia, just above 
the Kettle Falls, where the river is pent up between 
rocks, and runs or rushes in a lateral channel, which 
nearly encircles a level tract of land, containing about 
two hundred acres of rich soil. This makes it superior, 
for purposes of cultivation, to any other post on the up¬ 
per waters of the Columbia, and contrasts it very strongly 
with Okanagan, where the country is so barren, and the 
difficulty of transporting provisions so great, that the com¬ 
pany’s servants subsist almost wholly upon salmon. The 
cultivation of the crops at Fort Colville is almost the sole 
object of attention, for the whole of the northern posts 
