298 
VOYAGE IN A CANOE FROM FORT OWEN TO VANCOUVER. 
authority over the tribe. One of his punishments is to whip the offender, but this he never does 
unless the culprit first consents to the infliction; after which, the latter will frequently laugh or 
run races, or play a game, or do something else in the way of fun to show how little he cares for 
the punishment. 
At the mission they have a small mill, by which the Indians grind their wheat. The mill is 
turned by hand, and will grind but three bushels a day. 
The missionaries say that these Indians are industrious and not lazy, as compared to other In¬ 
dians; that they are willing to work, but that the land is so poor, and so little of it is susceptible 
of cultivation, that they cannot farm enough. The mission farm, as already stated, contains 
about one hundred and sixty acres. This is kept up for the natives, as but a few acres would 
be amply sufficient for the missionaries. Each Indian who wishes it is allowed a certain amount 
of land to cultivate for his own use, and is provided with tools and seed. The farm is for the 
most part on a terrace, raised some fifteen or twenty feet above the bottom of the river valley. 
The mould is rich and black, but very thin. Beneath this is a bed of bluish clay, very retentive 
of moisture and very barren. A small portion, (about two acres,) on the site of a former swamp 
now cleared and drained, is of deeper rich black muck, and yields excellent crops. 
The land generally does not bear much cropping, and soon wears out. They cannot extend 
the farm higher on the mountain slope, on account of the poverty of the land and the abundance 
of springs. The large prairie of the valley-bottom, below this terrace, is about twenty feet above 
the present level of the river. This, although good rich land, is rendered unfit for agricultural 
purposes by the annual overflow, which subsides so late in the season as not to allow any plough¬ 
ing or other work to be done upon it before the middle of July, too late for almost any crop. 
The missionaries have long wanted the natives to move to the Coeur d’Alene valley, or to the 
Camas and Horse Plains, where the land is better. They have offered to transport the things 
necessary to build new houses, but the people are unwilling to go. They say: “This is our 
country; here are the graves of our forefathers; here we were born, and here w T e wish to die; 
we do not want to leave our country, poor as it is.” 
A few inches below the surface of the earth can be found the ashes and cineritious deposit of 
a volcano. The stratum is about one-third of an inch thick. As you proceed in a north-north¬ 
easterly direction, it becomes thicker and thicker. Hence we may infer that the crater was in 
that direction, and probably can now be found. The inhabitants have never seen it. They do not 
travel from curiosity, and the direction is among mountains from the very door of the mission. 
In the tribe there are men and women still living who remember the eruption. They say that it 
came on during the afternoon or night, during which it rained cinders and fire. The Indians 
supposed that the sun had burnt up, and that there was an end of all things. The next morn¬ 
ing, when the sun arose, they were so delighted as to have a great dance and a feast. 
In the neighborhood of the mission is a large grotto, said to be fifty feet square and very hand¬ 
some. I was unable to visit it. 
The Kalispelms are brave in battle, and are said to be feared and avoided by the Blackfeet. 
They are not quarrelsome, but are of good disposition. The missionaries have done great things 
for them—for their bodies as well as their souls. Theft is of rare occurrence. The people seem 
to be devoted to religion, so far as external forms go and to the extent that their present under¬ 
standing will admit. It would take three hundred and fifty acres to supply them with sufficient 
food when the deer are destroyed. A little government aid could be well applied. Powder is 
dear with them, as also is everything else. Furs are scarce, and, in consequence, the people 
are very poor. While sojourning in these parts, I was told that there is an abundance of lead 
ore on the Kootenaie river. Black lead is found at St. Mary’s, and gold on Hell Gate river. 
Copper and silver are said to exist in the mountains north. The loud, deep-sounding reports, 
like the explosions of heavy pieces of ordnance, occasionally heard in the Rocky mountains, and 
spoken of by Lewis and Clark in their narrative, are now and then heard. They never occur 
