BOTANY OF CEDROS ISLAND. 195 
far in advance of the time when our Californian coast islands 
first received attention. As early as the year 1859 a small 
expedition went forth from San Francisco to explore Cedros 
in hope of verifying certain rumors which assigned to its 
mountains great mineral wealth. Whalers, seal hunters 
and fishermen had found the waters of Sebastian Viscaino 
Bay, and particularly of some of its large landward inlets, 
like Scammon’s Lagoon, abounding in valuable sea animalis, 
and were making most remunerative voyages thither yearly. 
These men gathered from the Indians of the Lower Cali- 
fornian peninsula the tradition of gold and silver on this 
great desolate unpeopled island. But the prospecting parties 
sent out, returned empty-handed; reporting nothing there 
in the line of mineral productions except small quantities of 
iron and copper ore. 
Dr. Veatch, who was one of this party, in kindness to his 
friend the late Dr. Kellogg, and in view of adding material 
to the herbarium of the then newly organized California 
Academy, brought with him fair specimens of some twenty- 
five different shrubs and herbaceous plants. These proved to 
be, almost without exception, species new to science Some 
of the most remarkable of them were published soon after, 
by Dr. Kellogg, in the Hesperian, the descriptions being 
accompanied with colored figures. Others were described in 
the early volumes of the Proceedings of the Academy, and a 
few of them have, in more recent years, been published by 
the present writer. 
Dr. Veatch was not a botanist. He reported Cedros as 
being extremely sterile and nearly destitute of vegetation. - 
His collection was scant; but so entirely novel was the 
character of it, that botanists have, ever since his day, wished 
for a more special and thorough investigation of it. The 
island is 700 miles, or more, distant from San Francisco ; it 
lies out of the course of ocean travel; its shores are visited 
by none but whalers and fishermen, who go from San Diego 
in small open boats, entirely unfitted to accommodate even 
the most hardy and venturesome of the fraternity of natural- 
