124 Sketch of the Life of Mr. David Douglas, 



that group, named James island, from which he drew a fair collec- 

 tion of both birds and plants, nearly all of which were lost to him 

 in consequence of the dampness of the vessel below, and the inces- . 

 sant rains upon deck. Of one hundred and seventy-five species of 

 plants gathered, he saved but fifty, and of birds, one only remained 

 to him of the forty-five he had killed. This was but an earnest of 

 the still heavier losses he afterwards sustained in his collections. 

 He says of the Gallipagos : — " Their verdure is scanty as com- 

 ' pared with most tropical countries, owing apparently to the 

 ' parched nature of the soil, and the absence of springs of fresh 

 ' water. The only spring I saw, was flowing from a crevice of one 

 ' of the craters. Some of the trees attain a considerable size in the 

 ' valleys, but they are not numerous, and with little variety of 

 ' species. The birds, however, are abundant, and some of them 

 ' exceedingly handsome, but so ignorant were they of man's de- 

 ' vices, that they sufiered themselves to be killed with a stick, so 

 ' that a gun was only needed when they sat high on the top of a 

 ' tree or rock. Many of the small birds perched on my hat, and 

 ' even unconsciously settled upon the gun (the instrument of 

 ' their destruction,) which I carried on my shoulder." 



One may form an idea of the difficulty of entering the Colum- 

 bia river in the winter season, from the fact that the AVilliam 

 and Anne was obliged to lay to in a tremendously heavy sea, 

 from the 12 th of February until the 7th of April ere she dared 

 to attempt crossing the bar. On the latter date, Douglas 

 had the happiness of passing Cape Disappointment and of 

 viewing from the vessel's deck the luxuriant growth of vegetation 

 on the banks of the Columbia, which he regarded with anxiety 

 as the scene of his future labors, but also with the highest satis- 

 faction, for there was laid before him all that mortal could desire 

 of beauty of landscape, and all that science might covet from any 

 single portion of the habitable globe. 



Mr. Douglas's first excursions were made in the neighbourhood 

 of Fort Vancouver, and he was there at once introduced to the 

 modes of travelling that have to be adopted in a wild Indian country. 

 Of a robust constitution and merry heart, he would with the 

 greatest complacency wrap his blanket round him and stretch him- 

 self out on the beach or under a bush as if he were lying down in 

 a comfortable bed. In a few months he had collected a number 

 of plants, many of them rare and new, and had besides dried the 

 seeds he had 2;athered for sendinsr toEndand. 



