Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/390

 360 T. C. Elliott and the writing was done with a quill often under very un- certain conditions of weather or comfort. Unless conversant with the French language and with the names and terms com- mon to the country and trade, it is practically impossible to decipher the writing at times, which covers margins and out- side as well as inside of the sheets. The wonder is that these journals are so well preserved as to be deciphered at all, and blunders in the copying may well be overlooked, as it is quite often a question of interpretation, especially with proper names.