Sketch of the Life of Mr. David Douglas. 127 



spruce of much grandeur and straightness in growth, the latter 

 the most elegant, perhaps, of all the Silver Firs. His exertions 

 being thus crowned with success, the fatigued botanist turned his 

 steps downwards towards Fort Vancouver, in order to look after 

 his packages for England, of which we have already spoken. 



In the end of October, although much impeded in his move- 

 ments, by a hurt which he had received in his knee, he was again 

 afloat in a small canoe proceeding towards the mouth of the Co- 

 lumbia. Leaving Cape Disappointment, he took the coast to the 

 northward, sometimes making portages, and at others keeping 

 with his Indian guide, in the tiny craft on rivulets skirting the 

 shore. At Cape Foulweather, the canoe was abandoned and a 

 march of sixteen miles made to gain Whitby Harbour, where the 

 Chiheelis empties itself into the Pacific. Here we shall take up 

 his own words. 



"On arriving there, when we found the village deserted, I can 

 " hardly describe the state I was in. While my guide and the 

 " Indians were collecting some drift-wood, I made a small booth of 

 " pine branches, straw, and old mats My blanket having been 

 " drenched all day, and the heavy rain affording no opportunity of 

 '' drying it, I deemed it imprudent to lie down to sleep, and ac- 

 " cordingly spent the night sitting over the fire. The following day 

 '• found me so broken down with fatigue and starvation, and my 

 " knee so much worse, that I could not stir out. We fared most 

 " scantily on the roots of Sagittaria sagittifolia and Lupinus 

 " UttoraUsjCQlhdi in the Chenook language, Somuchtau, till crawl- 

 " ing out a few steps with my gun, I providentially saw some 

 " wild birds, and killed five ducks at one shot. These were 

 " soon cooked, though one of the Indians ate his share raw. To 

 " save time in plucking the fowl, I singed off the feathers, and 

 " with a basin of tea made a good supper on one of them. I had 

 '' certainly been very hungry, yet strange to say, as soon as I saw 

 " the birds fall, my appetite fled, and I could hardly persuade 

 " myself that I had been in such want." 



Having procured assistance at a village on the opposite side of 

 the bay, he turned up the Chiheelis river, but after being three 

 days on this stream, he found the weather still continuing so 

 rainy, that he discharged his guide, and hired another Indian 

 with a horse to carry his luggage across to the Cowlidsk river. 

 This distance, though only forty miles, occupied two days, all the 

 low grounds being flooded with water j and the roads in the woods 



