272 Slcetcli of the Life of Mr. David Douglas. 



sextants, I employed a reflecting circle. As I used it, all errors 

 of the kind were insensible. By the same operation, I find 11,320 

 feet for Mount Jefferson. The day however was not so good as I 

 could have wished, the snow capped summit was obscurely defined 

 by reason of flaky and stray milky, clouds, that adhered to it 

 with great obstinacy. This does not affect greatly the general 

 result. I would have had much reason to rejoice, had I not had 

 a misfortune on my return. On one of the rapid tributaries of 

 the Mattnomah, I lost all my zoological collections, a dreadful loss, 

 as it contained good things. It is curious ; on the 17th Novem- 

 ber 1826, / lost every tiling Iliad at the same place ^ when return- 

 ing from my southern journey ! A kelpie, or elf is the charm of 

 that stream,* so unfortunate to me. Since that time I have 

 made my intended trip to the cascades with my friend Chumtalia. 

 I accomplished all I wished. Poor Chumtalia is since dead. 

 He was blown up by his powder horn which was on his person, 

 and falling on his side, his knife entered about the fifth rib 

 so that he died. He is now laid with his fathers. Your friends 

 will have told you of the ravages a fatal intermittent fever has made 

 among the red men in the lower parts of the river. I was ten 

 days in that state, between hope and fear, but never was laid down. 

 I am now thus far on my way to California. It will depend en- 

 tirely on the country, and the facilities I meet with from the men 

 in power there, whether my st^y will be long or short ; I shall feel gra- 

 tified by being remembered by you, thought of and written to, if 

 you can make it convenient." 



He reached Montery at the winter solstice, the season when 

 vesretation there ao-ain recovers from the autumn drought. The 

 roots that have been parched by the summer's heat, again have 

 imbibed humidity and send up their juices, and seeds that have 

 been preserved sound by the dryness of the atmosphere, now swell 

 under the rains, and shoot up with a rapidity unknown in northern 

 climates. The beautiful Ribes speciosum there adorns the bush, 

 and the Nemophila insignis with its delicate blue carpets the 

 sandy lawn. Douglas now botanized among the ranges along the 

 coast to the southward as far as Ste. Barbara, and then returning 

 leisurely reached San Francisco in June. Thence he continued 

 his route as far north as latitude 38® 45', hoping to reach the 

 spot where in October 1826, he had visited the great pine trees 



♦ River Sandiam, 



