named effects of preternatural power. Most of those that came under my notice, and which the Indians attributed to preternatural agency, were the effects of causes purely nat ural. Notwitstanding these deplorable disorders of the soul, it is my greatest consolation to reflect that these superstitious practices, in consequence of the many palpable contradictions they admit, become a spiritual malady the least difficult to cure.
On the 5th of August, [1846] I left the Mission of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, accompanied by the Reverend Father Point. Three Indian families, desirous of visiting St. Mary's, served us for guides. Our journey for some days lay along the serpentine course of the river St. Ignatius," in the valley of the North. The soil of this valley is for the most part rich, and well adapted to cultivation, but subject to frequent inundations. Grain and potatoes are here cultivated by the Indians with great success. Father Joset, assisted by the savages, has already enclosed and prepared for cultivation a large field, capable of affording sustenance to several Indian families. Our hopes, then, of seeing these poor Indians furnished with a plentiful supply of provisions and their wandering habits thereby checked, will, with the blessing of God, be realized at no very distant day. To attain the desirable object of uniting them in villages, and thus forming them to habits of industry, we need, however, more means than we possess at present - we are very much in want of seeds of various kinds, and of agricultural implements.
Before arriving at the snow-capped chain of mountains, which separates the Coeur d'Alenes from the Flatheads, we wound our way for two days through forests almost impenetrable and over immense beds of rock, always following the course of the river, except where its tortuous windings would lead us too circuitous a route. So tortuous indeed is its course here, that in less than eight hours we crossed it no less than forty-four times. The majestic cedars that
11 Fr. St. Josse.