1826, APRIL. COLUMBIA RIVER 161 



snow lies 3 to 5 feet deep. Here, the whole country being covered with 

 snow, nothing could yet be done. 



April lih and 8th. Out in search of the grouse of the plain, but unable 

 to find any. Saw only one small black partridge, the same as that sent 

 home in 1825. 



April 9th. Early in the morning, in company with my companions, 

 I resumed my route on horseback over a neck of land to meet the boats 

 which had proceeded on the river, taking a circuitous bend round the 

 mountain. Our path was very rough, over broken stones, which were 

 partly covered with snow and rendered the footing precarious. On the 

 height of land a very beautiful yellow lichen is found over the dead brush- 

 wood, it affords a very durable beautiful yellow colour and is used by the 

 natives in dyeing. Snow 2 to 4 feet deep. Met the boats at eleven o'clock 

 of the same day, when, after taking breakfast, again went on by water 

 conveyance, distance by land thirty miles. Weather dry and pleasant 

 with fine clear and beautiful sky in the evenings. Camped twenty miles 

 above where we joined the boats. 



Monday and Tuesday, Wth, llth. Weather warm and very pleasant, 

 maximum 69 minimum 55. Arrived at the junction of the Spokane 

 River with the Columbia at sunset, where we found John Warren Dease, 

 Esq., commandant in the interior, and a party of fourteen men, on their 

 way to the Kettle Falls, ninety miles further up the Columbia. I was 

 by this gentleman received with extreme kindness and had every attention 

 and kindness that could add to my comfort. This is a brother of the 

 gentleman now accompanying Captain Franklin on his two journeys to 

 the Polar Sea. Mr. Dease, to whom I was made known through the 

 general notice sent by that agreeable gentleman Mr. McLoughlin, at Fort 

 Vancouver, gave me greater hopes than ever of making a rich harvest. 

 He will do all in his power to assist me. (This part of the Columbia is 

 by far the most beautiful that I have seen : very varied, extensive plains, 

 with groups of pine-trees, like an English lawn, with rising bluffs or little 

 eminences covered with small brushwood, and rugged rocks covered with 

 ferns, mosses, and lichens. 



12th. Employed drying part of my paper which was wet, and putting 

 into dry the few small plants collected on the journey. In the afternoon 

 and evening wrote to Joseph Sabine, Esq., to Mr. Munro, and to my 

 brother and copying my notes. Pleasant weather. 



13th, Thursday. Busy copying the remainder of my notes, as Mr. 

 McLeod is to leave early in the morning for his long trip to Hudson's Bay. 

 I am particularly obliged also to this gentleman for his friendly attention. 

 He has in the most careful manner taken my small tin box of seeds in his 

 own private box and will hand it over to Mr. McTavish. He has also 

 taken my package of notes. I met here Mr. John Work, with whom I was 

 acquainted last year, and who sent me a few seeds from the interior last 

 November, and furnished me with some valuable information about 

 the plants and mountain sheep in this neighbourhood. I find that the 

 package of seeds marked ' Wormwood of the Voyageurs ' is Tigarea 

 tridentata ; that marked by myself as if with a query is a very fine species 



