the river, but we passed Umatilla, Grand Ronde City and Celilo.
Dalles City is a town of about the same age as Walla Walla, and has few, if any, more inhabitants. It is a better business town, because it controls a larger section of country. The respectable curate of this city is the Reverend Mr. Vermaersh, a Belgian. He has a handsome frame church and was watching the erection of a convent, for the education of youth, under the direction of the Sisters of Jesus and Mary. A series of little towns and villages are rising as if by enchantment, all along the river as we go down, and all through the interior of the country.4
On the 8th of October I resumed my journey, going forty-five miles by steamboat. Five miles of this distance, through the Cascade Mountains, is made by rail. Then we take the steamer on the Columbia again and reach Vancouver toward evening. This is a town Of 700 to Boo inhabitants. It is the ordinary residence of the Bishop of Nisqually, Monseigneur Magloire Blanchet. This diocese, established in 1850, contains six secular priests, eight regular priests, seven lay brothers, eleven churches and chapels, twenty sisters of charity, a college, four literary institutions for girls, three similar establishments for boys and four charitable institutions. The white Catholic population was 6,ooo souls before gold was discovered, and must have more than tripled since. The arch-diocese of Oregon comprises twelve priests, ten churches, five religious institutions for the education of girls and five for that of boys. Portland is the ordinary residence of Monseigneur the Archbishop. It is the chief city and the commercial metropolis of Oregon, having some 6,ooo inhabitants. Twelve Sisters of Jesus and Mary are conducting a fine religious institution for the education of girls, which is in a very prosperous condition, enjoying the confidence of the public,
4 For omitted portions of this letter, see p. i$t8.