Mr Scouler's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 57 



On reaching the shore, they formed a circle round their chief, 

 and continued the dance for some time longer. 



15th. — In this day's excursion, we met a number of Indians 

 in the wood, chiefly women and children, who were employed 

 in collecting vegetables, as the young shoots of different species 

 of Rubus and Rosa, and, above all, the tender shoots of the 

 horse-tail, (Equisetum arvense,) which attains a large size, 

 and is much esteemed by the Indians. We saw plenty of 

 Menziesiajerruginea> but not yet in flower ; we found various 

 species of Trillium and Smilacina; but no plant we found 

 gave us more pleasure than the Hoolteria lucens, not only on 

 account of its beauty, but as it brought to mind our distin- 

 guished botanical preceptor, to whose instructions we had been 

 so much indebted. 



16th. — We had the pleasure of being introduced to Mr Mac- 

 loughlin the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, in 

 the west side of the rocky mountains; a gentleman who, 

 during our stay in the Columbia, rendered us every assist- 

 ance, and took a friendly interest in all our researches. As 

 Mr Douglas was to set out next day for Fort Vaucouver, in 

 company with Mr Macloughlin, we agreed to make an excur- 

 sion to Tongue Point (six miles from the fort) before we part- 

 ed. In this journey we had to penetrate through dense brush- 

 wood, and climb over steep rocks, but we succeeded in ac- 

 quiring many interesting plants and animals. We filled our 

 boxes with various species of Claytonia and liliaceous plants ; 

 our pockets and handkerchiefs were filled with mosses and 

 land snells ; the number of ravens on the banks of the river 

 showed there were specimens to be got there, and on examin- 

 ing the pools we found fresh water Crustacea and shells. 



The appearance of the rocks we saw gave us some idea of 

 the structure of the surrounding country. As our time was 

 chiefly occupied with botany and zoology, we could only de- 

 vote a short portion of our time to the other branch of natu- 

 ral history ; but I may here mention the few geological facts 

 we detected. There are no high mountains in the vicinity of 

 Fort George ; and the country consists of sloping hills, of gra- 

 dual ascent, and regular outlines. From the soft nature of 

 the rocks of the Columbia, which are rapidly disintegrated by 



