110 CoviUe — Botanical Exploration^^ of Thomas Nuttall. 



where he embarked on a Boston vessel to come back to the United States 

 round Cape Horn. Mr. Nuttall arrived in Boston in the beginning of 

 October, 1835." 



This statement of Durand,it now appears, is incorrect in that 

 Nuttall (lid not separate from Townsend in the Hawaiian 

 Islands, did not sail at this time for California, did not spend 

 the following spring and summer in California, did not embark 

 for Boston from the Hawaiian Islands, and did not reach Boston 

 in 1835.* 



Nuttall, in company with Townsend, embarked at Honolulu, 

 Hawaiian Islands, March 26, 1835, on the American ))rig May 

 Dacre and entered the mouth of the Columbia on April 16 

 following. t 



Under date of July 11, 1835, Mr. Townsend states:]: that Nut- 

 tall "has just returned from the Dalles, where he has been 

 spending some weeks." Under date of October 1, 1835, refer- 

 ring to a Hudson Bay Company's vessel in which Dr. Gairdner, 

 one of the company's surgeons, had sailed a few days before 

 from the mouth of the Columbia to the Hawaiian Islands, 

 Townsend says : 



"My companion, INIr. Nuttall, was also a passenger in the same vessel. 

 From the [Hawaiian] islands he will probably visit California, and either 

 return to the Columbia by the next ship and take the route across the 

 mountains or double Cape Horn to reach ins home." 



From the records thus cited it is evident that Nuttall si)ent 

 the spring and summer of 1835 on the Columbia River in Ore- 

 gon and Washington, not in California. It may seem strange to 

 the reader that Nuttall, wishing to go to California from the 

 Columbia, did not make the journey overland, or at least take 

 a vessel down the coast. The fact is that he did not do this 

 simply because he could not. Up to that time there was no 

 land route from the Willamette to the Sacramento across the 

 mountains of the Umpqua and the Rogue rivers and the terrible 

 Siskiyous. As for a coastwise vessel from the Columbia to a 

 California port, that was a rare occurrence. The trade of the 



* Since this article was written Dr. John W. Harshberger's book on 

 "The Botanists of Philadelphia and Their Work" has appeared, with tlie 

 same errors, doubtless also on the authority of Durand. 



t Townsend, John K. Narrative of a journey across the Rockj' Moun- 

 tains, etc., pages 215, 2bS, 18:i<). 



I Op. cit.,224. 



