MENZIES' JOURNAL OF VANCOUVER'S VOYAGES. 21 



intervals parties were landed to brew " Spruce beer," and 

 Menzies tells us that the hemlock {Tsuga Alberiiana) was the 

 best conifer for that purpose. 



The exploration continued to the latitude of 56° — that part 

 of the coast which is in the neighbourhood of Wrangel at the 

 mouth of the Stikine River, a region to this day seldom visited 

 except by trappers, placer-miners, and sportsmen. By July they 

 found the rivers crowded — as they still are — with salmon of 

 several species. Bears and deer are frequently mentioned, but 

 it is worth noticing that Menzies never speaks of seeing or hear- 

 ing of that immense deer the Wapiti, either on Vancouver 

 Island or in the Olympic Mountains south of the Straits of Juan 

 de Fuca, the only coast regions where they occur. They were 

 probably little more numerous 130 years ago there than they are 

 now. In this exploration of the coast, Menzies reports no tree 

 and scarcely a plant of any kind other than those he mentioned 

 in the year previous. ^ 



The vessels were back at Nootka Sound by the 5th of 

 October, which they left again for the south three days later, 

 anxious to enjoy once more the flesh-pots of California. By the 

 nineteenth of the month the " Discovery " entered the Bay of 

 San Francisco, followed shortly afterwards by the "Chatham," 

 to which Menzies had been temporarily transferred, and which 

 had made a landing to explore a bay which was probably that 

 into which the Klamath River debouches — the country of the 

 Lawson cypress ; Menzies, however, does not seem to have seen 

 this tree, and nothing was done owing to the continuous foggy 

 weather. 



They met at San Francisco, and afterwards at Monterey, a 

 very different reception from what the previous year's experience 

 had led them to expect. A new Governor-General of the 

 Province had been appointed, who it seems was far from friendly 

 to the British, and his orders from Monterey, issued to the 

 Commandant at San Francisco, were to afford as little assistance 

 as possible to Vancouver and his officers. Happily they were 

 joined here by the store-ship ** Daedalus," which had been sent 

 from Port Jackson in Australia with supplies for the expedition. 

 After rather frigid courtesies on both sides, the three vessels 

 sailed from Monterey for Santa Barbara, where the good Fathers 

 of the Mission gave them a warm welcome and provided them 

 with all they needed, including horses to ride. Here Menzies 



