16 DOUGLAS' JOURNAL 



my coat and money, bad weather all these combined made me glad to 

 relinquish the idea of Canada at such a late period of the season. It 

 certainly is a fine field and would afford an abundant harvest. 



Wednesday, September lUh. To-day it rained till 4 o'clock P.M., at 

 which time I made a few steps down the river-side towards the lake. 

 Quercus 44, very tall and thick, and growing in sand on the beach on the 

 shore of Lake Erie. I went back through the fields and secured two other 

 species one in wet poor soil, a small tree ; the other was in light 

 brown loam and larger. Several Liatris on fine marl (2 Herb.), tall, 

 colour bright red, almost scarlet ; a specimen of Lilium canadense in 

 sandy peat soil. I here gathered a promiscuous group of several things 

 but my time is so short that I cannot insert them. 



Thursday, September 25th. I packed my gleanings of plants and seeds 

 and specimens, and stood in readiness for the steamboat from Detroit, 

 which came in the afternoon. In company with Mr. Briscoe and family 

 during the whole of the passage ; we experienced a motion that could not 

 be surpassed in an ocean. It blew a tempest the whole of the time. 

 Towards midnight on Sunday (28th) we reached Buffalo, one of the wheels 

 of the boat being swept away, and otherwise disabled. 



Buffalo, Monday, September 29fA. In the morning I wrote to Jos. 

 Sabine. At 10 o'clock I set out in company with Mr. Briscoe for 

 Niagara. We went on the American side for two miles and crossed to the 

 Canadian side. The weather was very cold and there was a snow-shower 

 which lasted for three-quarters of an hour. We had a good deal of difficulty 

 in gaining the Canadian side ; the wind blew from the west. Along the side 

 of the River Niagara the soil in general is rich, of black and brown loam. 

 We travelled slowly, stopping frequently ; half-way from Buffalo to the 

 Falls we passed a wood, principally Ulmus, which in many places is scarce. 

 Along the margin of the river grows Crataegus such as I saw at Amherstburg 

 and Sandwich. One species of Euonymus. Hamamelis in blossom ; it had 

 a fine appearance, being destitute of leaves and with abundance of fruit. 

 Oliver Forward, Esq., of Buffalo, advised me to make a call on a Mr. Clark 

 who lives six miles from the Falls, having a taste for fruits, &c. He has two 

 large orchards of apples, consisting of about twelve or fourteen varieties ; 

 he had also a crop of Indian corn in the orchards. He obtained his fruits 

 from New York. He had only two different pears, and they were both bad : 

 one was large, which I think is called pound pear ; the other was smaller, 

 and coarse also. He has also a good many peaches planted out as 

 standards/, the trees were in good health and had not been pruned. Three 

 varieties of plums Magnum bonum (or Egg Plum, as he called it), Blue 

 Orleans, and Washington. He has lately got from Europe some vines, 

 Black Prince and Hamburgh, &c. At 5 o'clock in the afternoon we reached 

 the Falls. 



Tuesday, September 3Qth. This morning before daylight I was up and 



at the Falls. I am, like most who have seen them, sensitively impressed 



with their grandeur. Out of the cliffs of the rock grow Red Cedar, Juglans 



-amara, 1 and Quercus. On the channel of the river I picked up an Astra- 



1 Carya amara, C. DC. in DC. Prod. xvi. ii. p. 144. 



