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[[preprinted]] 64 [[/preprinted]]

[[underlined]] 2 [[/underlined]]

of the people, who are very tenatious of their holdings.

Just here it seems proper to call your attention to the lack of topography in the field notes and consequently upon the plats, and also to the season of the year when the survey was made. May. Mountains and Buttes, and canyons are not mentioned, and the character of the soils not discriminated, but all of it called, "first rate."  It is noticeable that nearly all the mounds are marked by "stone."  Particular mention is made of Township 32. N. Range 2, E. which is desired "as one of the best townships of land in Idaho Terr'y."  No mention is made of high buttes from 500 to 900 feet high, to alkaline patches, and hard soil which breaks and cracks.  These are patches of good land. The Spring time starts the grass, but it is now nearly all killed off by weeds, the result of the thousands of cattle grazing on the land, for the Reservation has been the free grazing ground of the white settlers on Camas Prairie for the past 15 years and more.

This season and last season there has been less rain than before, and therefore I see the country not in its most promising aspect, but all the better can I judge of its capacity to withstand drought & raise grain.

Transcription Notes:
tenacious. Could be tentative, but that doesn't make sense here for people holding onto their lands for dear life.