ployed six sail vessels, and one steamer, all armed, on the coasts of the Pacific, besides three large ships engaged in the transportation to and from London.* Of the persons in the regular service of the Company, the factors, traders, and clerks are, for the most part, Scotchmen or Canadians; the voyageurs are generally Canadians or half-breeds. The number of these servants, in the country beyond the Rocky Mountains, does not, probably, exceed four hundred; many Indians are, however, constantly employed in hunting and trapping, and as boatmen or porters.

Fort Vancouver, the principal establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company, west of the Rocky Mountains, is situated near the north bank of the Columbia, at the distance of eighty-two miles in a direct line from its mouth, and about one hundred and twenty miles, following the course of the stream. The fort is simply a large, square, picketed enclosure, containing houses for the residence of the factor, traders, clerks and upper servants of the Company, magazines for the furs and goods, and workshops of various kinds; immediately behind it are a garden and orchard, and behind these is the farm, of about six hundred acres, with barns and all other necessary buildings. West of the fort are the hospital and houses for the voyageurs and Indians; about two miles lower down the river, are the dairy and piggery, with numerous herds of cattle, hogs, &c.; and about three miles above the fort are watermills for grinding corn and sawing plank, and sheds for curing salmon. The number of persons usually attached to the post is not less than seven hundred, of whom more than half are Indians of the country, the others being natives of Great Britain (principally from Scotland and the Orkney Islands), Canadians and halfbreeds. The whole establishment is governed nearly on the plan of one of the small towns of Central Europe during the middle ages; the stockade fort representing the baronial castle, in which the great dignitaries of the Company exercise almost absolute authority over their dependants.

Fort George consists merely of two or three log houses, situated on the south side of the Columbia, ten miles from its mouth, and occupying the place of a trading establishment called Astoria, which was founded in 1811 by the Pacific Fur Company of New York. Fort Umqua is near the mouth of the Umqua River, which enters the Pacific about one hundred and eighty miles south of the Columbia, and affords a harbor to vessels drawing not more than eight feet. Fort Nasqually is at the mouth of a little river emptying into Puget's Sound, the southernmost part of the great

For particular accounts of the Hudson's Bay Company's system, see page 392 of the History; and the Proofs and Illustrations under the letter I.

For accounts of this enterprise see Chap xiv. of the History.

arm of the Strait of Fuca, called Admiralty Inlet ; near this place the Company has a large agricultural establishment, which is said to be in a prosperous condition. Fort Langley is at the entrance of Fraser's River, into the eastern extremity of the Strait of Fuca, in latitude of 49 degrees 25 minutes. Besides these, the Hudson's Bay Company has several forts on the channels separating the islands of the north-west Archipelago from the continent; the northernmost of which is near the mouth of the Stikine, a large river emptying into Prince Frederick's Sound, in the latitude of 56 degrees 50 minutes.

On the Columbia, above its falls, the Company has Fort WallaWalla or Nez-Percé, near the confluence of the great northern and southern branches; Fort Okinagan, at the entrance of the Okinagan River into the north or main branch; Fort Colville, near the Kettle Falls; and some others, of less consequence. On the Lewis, or great southern branch, are Fort Boisé, at the mouth of the Boisé, or Reed's River, and Fort Hall, at the entrance of the Portneuf. North of the Columbia country, are Fort Alexandria, on Fraser's River, and others on the lakes which abound in that part of the continent. All these are, however, on a very small scale, and seldom contain more than two or three clerks or traders and a few Indians or half-breed hunters.

Of the American settlements in Oregon, no exact accounts have been obtained of later date than the beginning of 1843, at which time they were few and small, being indeed little more than missionary stations. The principal are those in the valley of the Willamet, then containing about a hundred Americans; another station is on the south side of the Columbia, near the Cascades; and others are at the Walla-Walla, and near Fort Colville. The whole number of citizens of the United States, thus established, did not probably exceed two hundred; they were all apparently prospering, in consequence, there is reason to believe, rather of the industry, economy, and morality of the settlers, than of any particular advantages offered by the country. The thousand and more emigrants who have since arrived in Oregon, will succeed, if any can; having been from their childhood accustomed to the labors and privations to which all must be subjected in the colonization of a new country.

The American hunters and trappers generally pursue their business, in California, near the head-waters of the Colorado River, and about the Utah Salt Lake. In the summer of each year, they assemble at one of the places of rendezvous, near the Southern Pass, where they exchange their furs for money and goods with the traders from Missouri.

Before terminating this sketch of the Geography of Oregon, it

will be proper to devote a small space to the regions east of the Rocky Mountains, included between that chain, and the settled parts of the continent bordering upon the Atlantic.

It has already been said, that the portion of these regions, between the 38th and the 50th parallels of latitude, near the Rocky Mountains, are almost as arid and barren as those on the other side of the chain; presenting, except in the immediate vicinity of the rivers, little else than bare rocks and sand. Across these territories flow the Missouri, and its great tributaries, the Yellow Stone and the Platte, and the upper streams of the Arkansas, falling directly into the Mississippi; all of which rise in the Rocky Mountains, near the 42d degree of latitude. Unfortunately, however, none of them seem calculated to serve as channels for transportation between the Atlantic and the Pacific territories. The Missouri and Yellow Stone each take a devious course; so that after ascending them to the furthermost parts at which they are navigable, the distance to the Oregon countries is nearly as great as from the mouth of the Platte, and the difficulties of crossing the mountains are far greater. The Platte is the most shallow of all large rivers it passes through a country nearly level, and the annual overflow of its waters only serves to render it wider, without any increase of its depth. This is unfortunate, as its course is precisely that which should make it the most direct and advantageous line of communication between the Missouri and the CoJumbia its northern branch runs from the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, in latitude of 42 degrees 20 minutes, six hundred miles nearly due east, to its junction with the south branch; beyond which the river continues in the same course, three hundred miles further to its union with the Missouri.*

Along the banks of the main river and its northern branch, nature has provided a road, which, by some assistance from art at certain points, will be one of the best in the world; on it wagons now proceed with little difficulty up the Platte, and through the South Pass to the head-waters of the Colorado, there called the Green River, whence they continue northward across the ridge separating that river from the Lewis, the great south branch of the Columbia. The difficulties of the road in Oregon are greater, but they have already been partially overcome; a light carriage was several years since driven from Missouri to the Falls of the Columbia; and heavy wagons now perform the same journey. In order

The Platte River, from its junction with the Missouri to its sources in the Wind River Mountains, has been accurately surveyed in the summer of 1842, by Lieutenant Fremont, of the United States army; whose report of the survey, accompanied by a large and beautiful map, and several views of scenery, published by order of the Senate, in 1843, is a most valuable addition to our knowledge of the geography of the central regions of the continent.

to render the route safe and comparatively easy, the American government should, without delay, cause fortified posts to be established on the Platte, at distances of about two hundred miles apart, to serve as earavanserais for the protection and refreshment of travellers and emigrants.

North of the 50th parallel, the climate is more moist; but its extreme coldness renders the country of little value for agriculture. The only part at which any settlement has been attempted, is that in the vicinity of the Red River of the North, where about five thousand persons, principally half-breeds and Indians, have been established by the Hudson's Bay Company; but the success of the enterprise is as yet doubtful. This whole division of America is drained by streams entering Hudson's Bay or the Arctic Sea; the principal are the Red River of the North, the Assinaboin, and the Saskatchawine, all emptying into Lake Winnipeg, which communicates by several channels with Hudson's Bay, and the Mississippi or Churchill's River, falling directly into that bay; while the Arctic Sea receives, nearly under the 69th parallel of latitude, Back's or the great Fish River, the Coppermine and the Mackenzie, which latter carries off the waters from a territory almost equal in extent to that drained by the Columbia. The regions through which these rivers pass are generally so level that it is in many places difficult to trace the limits of the tracts from which the waters flow into the respective streams or basins: they contain numerous lakes, some of them very large, which are nearly all connected with each other, and with Hudson's Bay on the west, and the Arctic Sea on the north; and the head-waters of the rivers supplying these reservoirs are situated in the vicinity of the sources of the Mississippi, or those of the Missouri, or of the Columbia, or of the streams falling into Lake Superior. The rivers above-named are all navigable for great distances by boats, and they thus afford considerable advantages for commercial intercourse, which are not neglected by the British traders; goods being now transported across the continent from the mouth of the Columbia to Hudson's Bay or to Montreal, and vise versa, almost entirely by water. The principal pass in the Rocky Mountains, north of the 43d degree of latitude, through which all the communications between Canada and Hudson's Bay on the one side, and the Columbia on the other, are conducted, is that near the 53d degree, in which the northernmost source of the Columbia and the westernmost of the Athabasca are situated, as already mentioned.

RUSSIAN AMERICA.

RUSSIA claims, as already stated, in virtue of the discoveries and settlements of her subjects, and of treaties with the United States and Great Britain, all the Pacific coasts and islands of America north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, and the whole of the continent west of the 141st meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, which line passes through Mount Saint Elias. This power also claims the whole Asiatic coast of the Pacific, north of the 51st parallel, and all the islands of the Kurile group north of the southernmost point of one of them, called Urup, in the latitude of 45 degrees 50 minutes.

Of the interior of the part of the American Continent possessed by Russia, little is known. Several rivers flow from it, which have been traced to considerable distances; but the country has not been generally explored, and from all accounts, it does not seem to merit the labor and expense which would be required for that purpose, as it presents, wherever it has been examined, nothing but mountains of rocks, snow and ice. The coasts of the continent, and the islands, have all been carefully surveyed; and, with the exception of those on the Arctic Sea, very little remains to be learned about their geography. Of all these territories only small portions of some of the islands are fit for agriculture, or for any purpose useful to man, except fishing and hunting, for which objects exclusively are they frequented by people of civilized nations.

The direction and use of all these islands and parts of the American Continent, was, in 1779, granted by the emperor of Russia, for twenty years, to a great commercial association, entitled the Russian American Company, whose charter has been successively renewed, in 1819 and 1839, for the same length of time, in each case. The inhabitants of the Kurile and Aleutian Archipelagoes, and of the large island of Kodiak on the east side of the Peninsula of Aliaska, are regarded as the immediate sub