for him in 1849. I believe they were afterwards published, but I have never seen the book."
Archibald McKinlay, Ogden's son-in-law, wrote to Elwood Evans in 1882: "Peter S. Ogden did publish a book. I never saw but one copy. I have the dedication written by Washington Irving dedicated to Lady Simpson. It is in his own handwriting. It was more of what I would call a romance."
T. C. Elliott, the historian, after indicating the possibility though not the certainty of Irving's connection, goes on to this conclusion: "The book referred to by Mr. McKinlay can hardly be the same as the writings described by Mr. Applegate, though it might be the part copied by Mr. Allen. It is readily identified as a small and now very rare volume published in London in 1853 anonymously and entitled Traits of American Indian Life and Character, by a Fur Trader. The style of its writing has little semblance to that of Mr. Ogden's letters, it is entirely lacking in that quaintness and humor so common to him . . . But the incidents related just as certainly refer to Mr. Ogden as the actor and realtor and check closely with portions of his own career, and must have come from him."
So if you want to pay $60—maybe more now—for that first edition, you can be pretty sure you are getting a book by Peter Skene Ogden.
Father Morice and the editor of the new Grabhorn edition and F. W. Howay, the historian, have all taken part in the speculations. Ogden emerges with his authorship contradictory in spots but still circumstantially as the writer of the little book, with its 16 sketches dated from 1823 to 1848.
His Journals, from which the following selections are taken, furnish an excellent picture of the daily life of a trapper.
Nov. 5, 1825
—about 12 o'clock came to the end of the hills—a grand and noble sight—Mount Hood bearing due west, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Nesqually (Mt. Adams) Northwest, covered with eternal snow, and in a southern direction other lofty mountains in form and shape of sugar loaves. At the foot of all these mountains were lofty pines, which added greatly to the grandeur of the prospect. Could anything make it more so?
Jan. 1826
Cold has decreased, but still severe for the Columbia—Another horse killed for food. Except for seven beaver the
