Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/436

 408 Documents. The triidc in furs lias always been very extensive. I cannot pretend, at this time, to give any very minute account of the amount of this trade, for many years in succession ; but some idea may be formed of the amount by a table which I will read. Table showing the amount of Furs and Peltries exported from the parts of America owned or occupied by the British. SKINS. AMOUNT IN DOLLARS. Beaver ?793,400 Muskrat 46,9 65 Lynx 11,020 Wolf 11,890 Bear 19,250 Fox 31,910 Mink 5,645 All other kinds 2,475 n, 017,555 But some have said that the distance to the Oregon is so great that emigration to that country will be impracticable. This it a great mistake. The western part of the State of Missouri is in about sixteen degrees of west longitude from Washington. The mouth of the Umpqua is in about forty-five degrees west. A degree of longitude in forty degrees north will not vary much from fifty English miles. Thus it will be seen that from the settlements in Missouri to the Pacific ocean is less than fifteen hundred miles on a straight line going west. The Southern pass as it is called, near the head of the Platte river, will afford a good wagon road to the west of the Rocky Mountains. I will read from a letter, which I believe is authentic, and will show the facilities with which wagons may be driven into the Oregon : Extract of a letter fror.i Messrs. Smith, Jackson, and Sublette, dated in October, 1829, to the Secretary of War. "On the 10th of April last (1829) we set out from St. Louis with eighty-one men, all mounted on mules, ten wagons, each drawn by five mules, and two dearborns, each drawn by one mule. Our route was nearly due west, to the western limits of the State of Missouri, and thence along the Santa Fe trail about forty miles, from which the course was some degrees north of west, across the waters of the Kanzas, and up the Great Platte river to the Rocky Mountains and the head of Wind river, where it issues from the mountains. This took us until the 16th of July, and was as far as we wanted the wagons to go. Here the wagons could easily have crossed the Rocky Mountains, it being what is called the Southern pass, had it been desirable for them to do so. For our support on leaving the Missouri settlements, until we should get into the buffalo country, we drove twelve head of cattle, besides a milch cow, eight of these only being required for use before we got to the buffaloes. The others went on to the head of Wind river. We began to fall in with the buffalos on the Platte, about three hundred and fifty miles from the white settlements, and from that time lived on buffaloes, the quantities being infinitely beyond what we needed. On the 4th of August, we set out on the return to St. Louis ; all the high points of the mountains then in view, being covered with snow ; but the passes and valleys and all the level country, was green with grass. Our route back was over the same ground, nearly, as in going out, and we arrived in St. Louis on the 10th of October, bringing back the two wagons, (the two dearborns being left behind;) four of the oxen and the milch cow were also brought to the settlements in