rich as it can be, for it is all made land. It overflows in the high tides in the winter, but it is said does not in the summer. The people have their gardens on it and some men build their houses on it.
They cannot plant as early as up this way but I must say, that I never see better garden sauce for the time that it had been planted. Potatoes were as large as my fist, yet they were so green that they were hardly fit to eat, and the tops were just in the blossom. I have been told that small grain could not be raised there, but I saw as nice a patch of oats, as I ever saw in Illinois. A stalk of oats was brought up on the boat that was 7 feet long, and it is thought that wheat will grow equally well. The high land I think is good for wheat, or any kind of small grain, and I know of no reason why it should not do well, for wheat I know will grow there for I saw a little in a garden, which was sowed just to try it. The tide land is what they call prairai, but it has a considerable timber on it in places, and in some it is entierly open. I think the land is the highest on the banks of the rivers, anyway, it is dryer land, and it is where they make all of their gardens. The high lands are covered with heavy timber but is not as broken as most of the land that I have seen about the cost. I think there is none of it but what can be cultivated very well, after it is cleared, but it will be one of the jobs to clear it. The weather was generally cool mornings and evenings cloudy, and foggy, with a little rain. I was told that the winter seasons were not as cold as they are up this way, and that the snow lasted only about three days last winter. I must have been misinformed about the cold weather at the mouth of the river last winter, for I could not learn that it was anything like as cold as it was represented.
This is the best place for raising stock of any that I have seen as yet, for there is a great plenty of the very best kind of grass all over this tide land, and stock keeps hog fat all of the time. It is excelent place for making butter, for it is cool and the butter is hard all of the time. There is any quantity[1] of Goosberries on the tide land, many of them grow very large, and some{{rule}
- ↑ Swan enumerates and describes the fruits and berries of this region, with their seasons, and use as food; Northwest Coast, 88.
