Having already spoken to you of the Nez Perm and Spokan desert, I have nothing further to add relative to this dreary region. On advancing easterly toward the Blue Mountains, we find beautiful and fertile plains, inter
ed with limpid and wholesome streams. The valleys are picturesque, covered with luxuriant prairies, and forests of pine and fin 71% Nez Perc6s and Cayuses inhabit these
delightful pastures. They are the most wealthy tribes in Oregon; even some private families possess 1,500 110 avages successfully cultivate potatoes, peas, corn, and several kinds of vegetables and fruits. No situation affords finer grazing for cattle; even in winter they find an abundance, nor do they need shelter from the inclemency of the weather. Snow is never seen, and the rains are neither destructive nor superabundant.
About the middle of July I arrived safely with all my effects at the Bay of the Kalispels. In my absence the number of neophytes had considerably increased. On the feast of the Ascension Father Hoeken had the happiness of baptizing more than ioo adults. Since my departure
the spring our little colony has built four houses, prepared materials for constructing a small church, and enclosed a field of 300 acres. 'More than 4oo Kalispels, computinj adults and children, have been baptized. They are all a mated with fervor and zeal; they make use of the hatchet and plow, being resolved to abandon an itinerant life for a permanent abode.
The beautiful falls of the Columbia, called the Kettle falls, in the vicinity of Fort Colville, are distant two days' journey from our new residence of St. Ignatius. From eight to nine hundred savages were there assembled for the salmon fishery. I repaired thither V time to spend with them the nine days preceding the feast of our holy founder. Within the last four years, considerable numbers of these Indians were visited by the " Black-gowns," who administered the sacrament of baptism. I was re