Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/220

 the stores & found them filled with the cargos of the two ships both above & below, all in unbroken bails. They are chiefly Indians goods & will be sent away this fall to the several different posts of the Com. in the Ship, Neriade. Find here also every article for comfort & durability we need, but many articles for convenience & all Fancy articles are not here. Visited the Dairy also here we find butter & cheese in abundance Saw an improvement in the manner of raising cream Their pans are of an oblong square, quite large, but Shallow. Flareing a little, made of wood & lined with tin, in the center is a hole with a long plug. When the cream has all arisen to the surface, place the pan over a tub or pail, remove the plug & the milk will all run off leaving the cream in the pan only. I think these in a large dairy must be very convenient. They milk between fifty & sixty cows here. On visiting the mill did not find it in a high state of improvement It goes by horse power, has a wire bolt. This seemed a hard way of getting bread, but better so than no bread, or to grind by hand. The Com. have one at Colvil that goes by water & two on the Wallamut. Colvil is five days ride above W W from whence we expect to obtain our supplies of flour, also potatoes & pork. They have three hundred hogs there. Doct McLaughlin promises to loan us enough to make a beginning, & all the returns he asks is that we supply other settlers in the same way. He appears desireous to afford us every facility for living in his power. No person could have received a more hearty welcome or be treated with greater kindness than we have been since our arrival.

"17thA subject is now before the minds of a certain number of individuals, in which I feel a great interest, especially in its termination. It is that we Ladies spend the winter at Vancouver, while our husbands go seek their locations & build. Doct McLaughlin our host is certain that it will be best for us, & I believe is determined to have us stay. The tho'ts of it is not very pleasing to either of us for several reasons I had rather go to W. W. where if we failed of making our location or of building this fall, we could stay very comfortably & have enough to eat, but not as comfortable nor have as great variety to eat as here, & besides the difficulty of ascending the river in high water,