Owing to the great want of tools and to the difficulties of procuring them, the Indians have been till now in the necessity of making a summer and winter hunt to procure provisions and clothing by means of the buffalo chase and of other animals, such as the elk, the moose, the mountain sheep, the red fox and black-tailed deer, the antelope and the bear.
Buffalo and beaver are becoming every year more scarce and will soon fail them altogether. We hope the providence of God will come to their relief and that means will be found to procure them implements and tools to settle them permanently at St. Mary's, the village and spot they have chosen for their abode.
A school has been commenced at which all the children attend during their stay at the village. One of the missionaries having found excellent dispositions for music among the Flathead youth, has formed a musical band who play with great ease and harmony passages from the best composers.
2d. The upper Kalispels or Pend d'Oreilles. The country of these Indians consists principally in forests and plains. The upper valley above the great Flathead lake appears to be very rich in soil and very productive and contains a great number of beautiful plains, among which the Camas and Horse plains are the most conspicuous. From below the latter to the head of the Kalispel lake, a distance of about loo miles, Clark's river is lined with almost impenetrable forests, inaccessible rocks and mountains, and runs on over many ledges of rocks, forming falls and rapids, rendering its navigation very dangerous even to small skiffs and canoes, and impossible to larger crafts. At the head of the above lake cedars are found in abundance, measuring from thirty to fifty feet in circumference.
The Kalispels speak the same language as the Flatheads; their dispositions and customs are the same; they are equally as honest and as docile. An establishment is im-