"' They have a splendid church, nearly finished by the labors of the Fathers, brothers and Indians; a large barn; a horse-mill for flour; a small range of buildings for the accommodation of the priests and brothers; a storeroom; a milk or dairy-room; a cookroom, and good arrangements for their pigs and cattle. They are putting up a new range of quarters, and the Indians have some twelve comfortable log cabins. The church was designed by the superior skill of the mission, Father Ravalli, a man of skill as an architect, and undoubtedly, judging from his well-thumbed books, of various accomplishments. Father Gazzoli showed me his several designs for the altar, all of them characterized by good taste and harmony of proportion. The church, as a specimen of architecture, would do credit to any one, and has been faithfully sketched by our artist, Mr. Stanley. The massive timbers supporting the altar were from larch trees five feet in diameter, and were raised to their place by the Indians, with the aid simply of a pulley and a rope.
" They have a large, cultivated field, of some Zoo acres, and a prairie of from 2,000 to 3,ooo acres. They own loo pigs, eight yokes of oxen, twenty cows, and a liberal proportion of horses, mules and young animals.
" The Indians have learned to plow, sow, till the soil generally, milk cows (with both hands), and do all the duties incident to a farm. They are, some of them, expert woodcutters; and I saw at work, getting in the harvest, some thirty or forty Indians. They are thinking of cutting out a good trail to St. Mary's valley, over the Coeur d'Alene Mountains (on the route passed over by me). They need agricultural implements and seeds.
" The country generally, on both sides of the Coeur d'Alene river and lake, is rolling and beautiful. It is interspersed with many small prairies, all affording excellent grazing, and most of them adapted to crops. The rolling country could be easily cleared, and would yield excellent wheat and vegetables. I have no question that all the coun