ion on the river,
and the settled population there may be taken as a fair index of that of
other favorable locations. The Dalles was visited by Ross in July, 1811,
and the following is his statement in regard to the population:

The main camp of the Indians is situated at the head of the narrows,
and may contain, during the salmon season, 3,000 souls, or more; but
the constant inhabitants of the place do not exceed 100 persons, and
are called Wy-am-pams; the rest are all foreigners from different
tribes throughout the country, who resort hither, not for the
purpose of catching salmon, but chiefly for gambling and
speculation.[2]

[Footnote 2: Adventures on the Columbia River, 1849, p. 117.]

And as it was on the Columbia with its enormous supply of fish, so was
it elsewhere in the United States.

Even the practice of agriculture, with its result of providing a more
certain and bountiful food supply, seems not to have had the effect of
materially augmenting the Indian population. At all events, it is in
California and Oregon, a region where agriculture was scarcely practiced
at all, that the most dense aboriginal population lived. There is no
reason to believe that there ever existed within the limits of the
region included in the map, with the possible exception of certain areas
in California, a population equal to the natural food supply. On the
contrary, there is every reason for believing that the population at the
time of the discovery might have been many times more than what it
actually was had a wise economy been practised.

The effect of wars in decimating the people has often been greatly
exaggerated. Since the advent of the white man on the continent, wars
have prevailed to a degree far beyond that existing at an earlier time.
From the contest which necessarily arose between the native tribes and
invading nations many wars resulted, and their history is well known.
Again, tribes driven from their ancestral homes often retreated to lands
previously occupied by other tribes, and intertribal wars resulted
therefrom. The acquisition of firearms and horses, through the agency of
white men, also had its influence, and when a commercial value was given
to furs and skins, the Indian abandoned agriculture to pursue hunting
and traffic, and sought new fields for such enterprises, and many new
contests arose from this cause. Altogether the character of the Indian
since the discovery of Columbus has