12 DOUGLAS' JOURNAL 



Buffalo. Breakfasted at Caledonia, a settlement of Scotch people. Country 

 generally flat ; by the roadsides stand settlements in infancy, just clearing 

 the ground by burning. Batavia a neat little village. The country here 

 presents a fine appearance, the fields are rich and well cultivated. Left 

 here at 4 o'clock, passed through for the most part wood and marsh, 

 a wild and desolate place. Buffalo, 12 at night. 



Saturday, September 13th. Early in the morning I wrote to Jos. 

 Sabine, Esq., and then called on Oliver Forward, Esq., a gentleman of con- 

 siderable wealth and friend of Governor Clinton. I took a walk round the 

 town and returned to breakfast. Went on board the steamboat at 

 9 o'clock A.M., and sailed at 10, and after a pleasant passage of sixty hours 

 landed at Amherstburg. As soon as I got my trunk on shore I waited on 

 Mr. Briscoe, from whom I received great kindness ; he readily pledged his 

 exertions for the furtherance of the Society's objects. I felt sorry to 

 learn the loss of his birds. I spent the evening with him, and should 

 to-morrow prove a good day we intend to make an excursion in the woods. 

 Amherstburg, Tuesday, September 16th. This morning at daylight, 

 I called on Mr. Briscoe, who on my making my appearance said he had 

 waited a long time for me. We took breakfast at 6 A.M. and set out north- 

 east of Amherstburg. He took his dogs and gun and proved himself, 

 before we had been out two hours, a marksman of the first sort. This is 

 what I might term my first day in America. The trees in the woods 

 were of astonishing magnitude. The soil, in general, over which we 

 passed was a very rich black earth, and seemed to be formed of decomposed 

 vegetables, On the south-east of the town, five miles, near the margin of 

 Lake Erie, the soil is of a reddish cast and produces fine crops of Indian 

 corn ; and now for the last four years, I learn they have cultivated tobacco 

 with great success for the Montreal market, and according as the general 

 opinion goes it will form an article of great importance to our Canadas 

 and at no distant period. The woods consisted of Quercus (several species, 

 some of immense magnitude) ; Juglans cathartica, 1 J. nigra (immensely 

 large), J. porcina a ; in dry places Fagus, and on its roots a species of 

 Orobanche ; also a species under oaks very different from the former 

 one. Four miles east of Amherstburg I observed a species of rose of 

 strong growth, the wood resembling multiflora, having strong thorns. 

 All the tender shoots and leaves were eaten off by cattle or sheep, which 

 prevented me from knowing it. 3 I gathered seeds of some species of Liatris, 

 which, along with Helianihus, Solidago, Aster, Eupatorium, and Vernonia 

 form the majority of which I had an opportunity of seeing in perfection. 

 In a field east of Amherstburg grew spontaneously Gentiana Saponaria (?) 

 and crinita, and I secured seeds. Towards mid-afternoon the rain fell 

 in torrents, urging us to leave the woods drenched in wet. 



Wednesday, September 17th. This morning I made a visit to a small 

 island in the River Detroit, opposite to Amherstburg. It is about one mile 

 long and three-quarters at its greatest breadth ; it appeared to be a spot 

 worthy of notice, as I found before evening. The whole island is low, and 



1 J. cinerea, C. DC. in DC. Prod. xvi. ii. p. 138. 



* Carya porcina, C. DC. loc. cit., p. 144. 3 Cf. Oct. 22nd. 



