Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. 269 There is, as far as yet appears, no reference in the family correspondence to any acquaintance with Washington Irving, but such an acquaintance would have come about very naturally during the year 1852 when Mr. Ogden was in New York and vicinity. And it is said of Mr. Irving that he did accumulate a number of manuscripts of this character but instructed that they be destroyed after his death, which oc- curred in November, 1859. The book referred to by Mr. McKinlay can hardly be the same as the writings described by Mr. Applegate, though it might be the part copied by Mr. Allan. It is readily identified as a small and now very rare little volume published in London in 1853 anonymously and entitled "Traits of American Indian Life and Character, by a Fur Trader." The style of its writing has little semblance to that of Mr. Ogden's letters, it is entirely lacking in that quaintness and humor so common to him, and it is quite im- possible to conclude that he would have personally edited it without the correction of certain contradictions as to dates, localities and facts. But the incidents related just as certainly refer to Mr. Ogden as the actor and relator and check closely with portions of his own career, and must have come from him. 1 In December, 185 1, Mr. Ogden left Ft. Vancouver in charge of a Mr. Ballenden and again started for Montreal; not this time by the familiar route up the Columbia, but by steamer to San Francisco and from there to the Isthmus of Panama and steamer to New York. His letter from there reports extreme heat on the steamer followed by extreme cold upon arrival and a preference for the climate of Oregon. He was wel- comed at the wharf in New York by his brother Henry, the father of that Wm. Seton Ogden who lived in Oregon for many years and who married the daugher of Thos. J. Dryer, the founder of The Oregonian. For family reasons this mar- riage was objected to by Peter Skene Ogden, who in a letter 1 For discussion of this see Appendix of 3rd Edit, of Hist, of No. Interior of B. C. by Father Morice.
