420 
INDIAN TRIBES OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 
all of one story, and built of square logs. The whole was once surrounded by a stockade, form¬ 
ing a square of about seventy yards on each side. This had been removed, except on the north, 
where it encloses a narrow yard containing offices. One bastion remains. About thirty yards 
in the rear of this square are the cattle-yard, hay-sheds, &c., enclosing a space of forty by sixty 
yards, roughly fenced in, and the sheds covered with bark. On the left of the front are seven 
huts, occupied by the lower employes of the company; they are of rude construction and much 
decayed. On the right of the square, in the rear, at a distance of a few hundred yards, are three 
more buildings, used for storing produce. 
Besides the principal establishment, there is a cattle-post, about nine miles distant, on the 
stream laid down as the Slawntehus, and a grist-mill of one pair of stones, three miles off, on the 
same stream. The latter is said to be in pretty good order, and the water to serve all the year 
round. Here, formerly, the flour for the northern posts was ground from wheat raised on the 
company’s farm. This farm was once pretty extensive, but only a small portion is cultivated at 
present. 
Fort Colville was once the post of a chief factor, the highest officer in charge of a station, and 
here the annual accounts of the whole country were consolidated previous to transmission across 
the mountains. The present force consists only of Mr. McDonald, chief clerk, a trader, and 
about twenty Canadians and Iroquois Indians. In former years goods were sent through this 
post to those north of the line, but this route is now abandoned. The amount of furs collected 
here is not large, and comes chiefly from the upper Columbia. They are principally bear, 
beaver, muskrat, marten, and fox skins. The beaver is not considered to be worth in London 
more than its cost when laid down there. 
About fifteen Canadians are settled on claims in this neighborhood, chiefly on the Slawntehus. 
They are former servants of the company whose time has expired, and who intend to be natu¬ 
ralized. 
Below Fort Colville is Fort Okinakane, situated on a level plain on the right bank of the Co¬ 
lumbia, a little above the mouth of the Okinakane river, and not far from the site of one of Mr. 
Astor’s posts. The fort consists of three small houses, enclosed with a stockade. There were 
formerly some outbuildings, but they have been suffered to decay. There is no appearance of 
business here, and no goods on hand. One trader, a Canadian, was the only white man on the 
ground when we visited it. A few furs only are taken, and the post probably does not pay its 
expenses. It was once of consequence as a stopping place for the bateaux passing to and from 
Fort Colville, but is now kept up apparently for form’s sake. We learned that the price of such 
furs as were taken here was, for a black fox-skin, a quarter of a yard of red cloth, or a red cock¬ 
tail plume; for marten or red fox, ten charges of powder and ball; for beaver, otter, or bear 
skins, thirty charges. 
Fort Kontamie, upon the great bend of the Flatbow river, and not far from the Flathead lake, 
is an inferior post, in charge of a Canadian as trader and postmaster, with one Canadian and a 
half-breed under him. 
The above constitutes all the posts situated in the country east of the Cascades and north of 
46°. It may be worth while to include the rest of those in American territory. 
There are in Oregon and east of the mountains onty two—Fort Hall, on the head of the Snake 
river; and Fort Boisee upon the same, nearly opposite the mouth of the Owy-hee. The latter 
is merely a stopping place, occupied by a trader and a few Kanakas. The former is a more 
important one, from its opportunities for trade with the emigrants and with the Salt lake. Of 
the present condition of this I am not informed; but it is only a third-rate post. 
West of the Cascades, in Oregon Territory, the principal is Fort Umpqua, on the Umpqua 
river. This was destroyed by fire two or three years since; but to what extent, since rebuilt, 
I do not know. The rest consist of a house and granary at Champoes, on the Willamette; one 
acre of ground below the falls of Oregon City, purchased from an American, a farmer; 640 acres 
