Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/108

102 and then rises with a gradual inclination until it is elevated several hundred feet above the River. It is set with grass, and makes a very pretty appearance. Vessels drawing fifteen feet water ascend the Columbia this far, without any difficulty. Vancouver is the principal depot of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, West of the Rocky Mountains. Their furs are collected from all parts of the Territory, to this place, and shipped once every year, to England, and the vessel returning, brings annually a cargo of goods, to supply the trade. They keep constantly on hand one year's supply in advance, that if any accident should happen to the vessel, either on her outward or homeward bound passage, the trade might not be interrupted. The Company have some good farms, and several large herds of cattle and hogs in different places. They have an extensive dairy on Sophia's [Sauvie's] Island at the mouth of the Willammette, where they make annually several thousand pounds of butter and cheese, which they send to Sitka, a Russian settlement to the North, with which the Hudson's Bay Company have also a contract to furnish a large amount of wheat yearly. In return for which they are to receive the Russian furs. They likewise furnish the Sandwich Islands with a considerable amount of flour, lumber, spars and fish, for which they receive in return the products of those Southern Islands. The great design of this Company is to trade with the Indians, and take the beaver, but, after this animal, so unfortunate on account of the rich dress which Providence has given it, as a shield against the cold of the North, had become nearly extinct, in the lower valley of the Columbia, and after the settlement of foreigners in the Sandwich Islands, and citizens of the United States in Oregon began to create markets, they extended their operations and began to cultivate the soil, to raise cattle, to build mills, to furnish the