Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/104

 employ themselves in knitting and weaving, which they have been taught. They raise on their small patches, corn, potatoes, melons, &c., irrigating the land for that purpose. There are many villages of Indians still existing, though greatly reduced in numbers from former estimates.

Population.—It is extremely difficult to ascertain, with accuracy, the amount of population in the Territory. The Indians change to their different abodes as the fishing seasons come round, which circumstance, if not attended to, would produce very erroneous results.

The following is believed to be very nearly the truth; if any thing, it is overrated:

{310} Vancouver or Washington Island              5,000 From the parallel of 50° to 54° north             2,000 Penn's Cove, Whidby's Island, mainland              650 (Shatchet tribe) Hood's canal,                                       500 (Suquamish and Toando tribe) At and about Okanagan                               300 About Colville, Spokane, &c. 450 Willamette falls and valley                         275 Pillar rock, Oak Point, and Columbia River          300 Port Discovery   150 } Fort Townsend     70 }  Chalams                     420 New Dungeness    200 } Wallawalla, including the Nez-percés, Snakes, &c  1,100 Killamouks, north of Umpqua                         400 Cape Flattery and Queen Hythe to Point Granville, (Classet tribe)                                 1,250 Blackfeet tribes that make incursions west of the Rocky Mountains                                 1,000 Birch Bay                                           300 Frazer's River (Neamitch tribe)                     500