were led up-stairs, in front of the big square hewed-timber house, and into a room on the right of the hall, where the ladies were seated, as also some six gentlemen, besides the tall white-headed one. The writer, standing in the hall, was noticed by Mr. McLeod, who came out and invited him into the quarters of the clerks. We will leave our ladies in conversation with the two fine-looking gentlemen that received them on arriving at the water's edge, while we take a look at the fort, as it appeared on September 12, 1836. CHAPTER XIX. Fort Vancouver in 1836.--An extra table.--Conditions on which cattle were supplied to settlers.--Official papers.--Three organizations. Fort Vancouver was a stockade, built with fir-logs about ten inches in diameter, set some four feet in the ground, and about twenty feet above, secured by pieces of timber pinned on the inside, running diagonally around the entire stockade, which at that time covered or inclosed about two acres of ground. The old fort, as it was called, was so much decayed that the new one was then being built, and portions of the old one replaced. The storehouses were all built of hewn timber, about six inches thick, and covered with sawed boards one foot wide and one inch thick, with grooves in the edges of the boards, placed up and down upon the roof, in place of shingles; of course, in case of a knot-hole or a crack, it was a leaky concern. All the houses were covered with boards in a similar manner in the new quarters. The partitions were all upright boards planed, and the cracks battened; floors were mostly rough boards, except the office and the governor's house, which were planed. The parsonage was what might be called of the balloon order, covered like the rest, with a big mud and stone chimney in the center. The partitions and floors were rough boards. There were but two rooms, the one used for dining-room and kitchen, the other for bedroom and parlor. The doors and gates of the fort, or stockade, were all locked from the inside, and a guard stationed over the gate. In front of the governor's house was a half semicircle double stairway, leading to the main hall up a flight of some ten steps. In the center of the semicircle was one large 24-pound cannon, mounted on a ship's carriage, and on either side was a small cannon, or mortar gun, with balls piled in order about them, all pointing to the main gate entrance; latterly, to protect the fort from the savages that had commenced coming over the Rocky Mountains, a bastion was built, said to be for saluting her Majesty's ships when they might arrive, or depart from the country.