tion, on which was raised abundance of grain and vegetables, requiring extensive storehouses. Large bands of cattle and sheep were kept, the latter improved by careful breeding until they yielded twelve-pound fleeces. From the few English apple seeds, elsewhere mentioned, had sprung trees which, though young, were so crowded with fruit as to need propping, and from the peach sprouts brought from Juan Fernandez Island had grown large trees that were bearing their first fruit. Indeed, the garden at Fort Vancouver rejoiced in a scientific overseer by the name of Bruce, who, on visiting England with McLoughlin, would see nothing in the duke of Devonshire's garden so pleasing to him as his Fort Vancouver plants, yet was careful to abstract as many of the Chiswick improvements as his mind could carry. Even then, and before, Bruce cultivated strawberries, figs, and lemons, the first with great success, the other two with the fruitless efforts that alone could be expected in the northern temperate zone; ornamental trees and flowers also received his fostering care.
On the farm was a flouring mill and thrashing machine, worked by oxen or horses in the Arcadian way, yet sufficient for the wants of all. A few miles above the fort, on a little stream falling into the Columbia, stood a saw-mill, cutting lumber enough during the year to supply not only the fort, but to load one or two vessels for the Hawaiian Islands.
Between the fort and the river, on the smooth sloping plain, lay a village consisting of thirty or forty log houses, ranged along a single street, and occupied by the servants of the company, Canadians, half-breeds, and Hawaiians, with a few from the Orkney Islands. In every house an Indian woman presided as mistress, and the street swarmed with children of mixed blood. Nothing offensive met the eye; everywhere cleanliness and decorum prevailed.
When a visitor came to Fort Vancouver—and the fort was seldom without its guest even in 1834—he
