1825, MAY JUNE. GREAT FALLS 57 



aphylla, Caprifolium ciliosum, 1 and a multitude of other plants. I cannot 

 pass over the grandeur of Lupinus polyphyllus covering immense tracts 

 of low land on the banks of streams, with here and there a white 

 variety. This beautiful plant attains the height of 6 to 8 feet where 

 partly overflowed by water. My friend Dr. Scouler having visited me 

 for a few days, I returned with him to the sea in order to have the residue 

 of my articles brought up, with among other curious plants a noble species 

 of Arbutus, A. procera.% We had abundance of salmon brought to us 

 by the native tribes, which was purchased cheap and which we found 

 excellent. I returned to Fort Vancouver at the end of the month, having 

 increased my collection by seventy-five species of plants, a few birds and 

 insects, and four quadrupeds. 



I resumed in the vicinity of Fort Vancouver, procuring seeds of early- 

 flowering plants and adding others to my collection till June 20th, 

 when I availed myself of the despatch of the boats to the inland 

 establishments, of going with them as far as it appeared to me to be 

 advisable. The current at this season of the year being exceedingly 

 powerful from the melting of the snow in the mountains, the boats made 

 but little way, so that in the open parts, unobstructed by timber or rocks, 

 I botanised along the banks. The second day we passed the Grand Rapids, 

 forty-six miles above the Fort. The scenery at this place is romantic 

 and wild, with high mountains on each side clothed with timber of immense 

 size. The rapid is formed by the river passing through a narrow channel 

 170 yards wide. The channel is rocky, obstructed by large stones and small 

 islands, with a descent of 147 feet, being about two miles long. Whole 

 petrified trees, both of pine and Acer macrophyllum, are visible close to the 

 edge of the water. 



This being the season of salmon-fishing, I had opportunities of seeing 

 prodigious numbers taken, simply with a small hoop or scoop net 

 fastened to the end of a pole. The salmon is excellent in quality, 

 averaging 15 Ib. in weight. The seine is resorted to as a means 

 of taking salmon in the still parts of the stream with great success ; 

 spindle-formed pieces of the wood of Thuya plicata, which is very 

 buoyant, attached to the net by the smaller end, act as corks and 

 oblong stones as lead, which both serve the purpose well. The rope 

 of the net is made from the bark of a species of Salix, some of 

 Thuya ; the cord of Apocynum piscatoriump a gigantic species peculiar to 

 that country, which affords a great quantity of flax. From the Grand 

 Rapids to the Great Falls (70 miles) the banks are steep, rocky, and in 

 many places rugged. The hills gradually diminish in elevation, and are 

 thinly clothed with stunted timber, the shrubs only a few feet high. We 

 are no longer fanned by the huge pine, Thuya or Acer, or regaled by 

 Populus tremuloides for ever quivering in the breeze. As far as the eye 

 can stretch is one dreary waste of barren soil thinly clothed with herbage. 

 In such places are found the beautiful Clarkia pulchella, Calochortus 



1 Lonicera ciliosa, A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. i. n. p. 16. 



2 Arbutus Menziesii, A. Gray, loc. cit., ii. I. p. 27. 



3 Apocynum cannabinum var. glaberrimum, A. DC. in DC. Prod. viii. p. 439. 



