1 26 Sketch of the Life of Mr, David Douglas, 



" Vancouver again on the 5tli of August,and employed myself until 

 " the 18th in drying the specimens I had collected, and making 

 " short journeys in quest of seeds and other plants, my labours being 

 " materially retarded by the rainy weather. As there were no 

 " houses yet built on this new station, I first occupied a tent 

 " which was kindly offered me, and then removed to a lodge 

 " of deerskin, which soon, however, became too small for me, in 

 " consequence of the augmentation of my collections, and where 

 " also I found some difficulty in drying my plants and seeds. A 

 " hut constructed of the bark of the Thuja occidentalis was my 

 ^' next habitation, and there I shall probably take up my winter 

 '' quarters. I have only been in a house three nights since my 

 ^' arrival in North-west America, and these were the first after my 

 " debarkation. On my journeys I occupy a tent, wherever it is 

 " practicable to carry one ; which, however, is not often, so that 

 " a canoe turned upside down, is my occasional shelter ; but more 

 " frequently I lie under the boughs of a pine tree, without any- 

 " thing further." 



About the end of August, while on an excursion up the 

 Multuomak or Willamette river, he became aware of the exis- 

 tence of an enormous kind of pine, by finding very large pine 

 seeds in the tobacco pouches of the Calapooeah Indians. When 

 informed by these people that the tree was very large, and that its 

 seeds were eaten as an article of food, he at once set about veri- 

 fying this information, and gave the species the name of Lam- 

 hertiana, so that this mighty tenant of the forest, second in size 

 only to the gigantic Sequoia, (the Wellingtonia of Lindley,) now 

 received its baptism or specific name, although, it was sometime 

 afterwards, before Douglas saw it in all its magnificent propor- 

 tions. In the month of September he visited the Cascades, 

 heavy rapids of the Columbia, the first from the sea, and where 

 the river breaks through the rocky barrier of the great volcanic 

 range of Mounts Rainier and St. Helen's to the north, and their 

 partners Hood and Jefferson to the south. After an unsuccess- 

 ful attempt to scale the wooded summits on the north side, he 

 returned, being short of food, and had two days repose ; when he oc- 

 cupied his time with shooting seals as they descended the surging 

 rapids, in quest of salmon. Starting then for an exploration of 

 the other side, his wishes were gratified, and he gained the up- 

 per wooded regions, where he was rewarded with many new plants, 

 and discovered the Pinus nohilis and F, amaUUsj the former a 



