202 DOUGLAS' JOURNAL 



occasion, and, if it may be allowed to judge from gesture and the language 

 of nature, many of them possess qualifications that would be no disgrace 

 to a modern orator. Although there is much repetition in their harangues, 

 delivered with much vehemence and intense feeling, they are uniformly 

 natural and are certainly calculated either to tie the knot of affection and 

 sympathy, or rouse the mind to discord and war. I have observed speakers 

 and hearers so overcome that they sobbed and cried aloud, and the pro- 

 ceedings delayed until they recovered. This affair was concluded in the 

 usual way exchange of presents. Although friendship had again been 

 restored, it would have been imprudent to have gone from the camp ; 

 therefore I employed myself putting in order those collected and airing 

 some seeds. On Sunday at midday we rose camp and pitched on the 

 northern shore of the north branch. 



Monday, July 31st, to Friday, August 4:tJi. Early in the morning I had 

 the plants and seeds which were collected carefully secured in one of the 

 saddle-bags. Parted with Mr. McDonald, who descended the river ; and 

 Mr. Work with two men and myself took our departure overland in a north- 

 easterly course to Kettle Falls on the Columbia. On gaining the top of the 

 hills near the river we found the road good in many places and in others 

 very bad, with badger and rabbit holes, which at this season are covered 

 with grass, rendering them more dangerous. Made about forty-five miles. 

 Camped at mid-afternoon on a low piece of ground where there was water ; 

 passed only one spring in the course of the day. The whole country 

 destitute of timber ; light, dry, gravelly soil, with a scanty sward of grass. 

 Gathered seeds of two species of Astragalus. Thermometer 97 ; heavy 

 dews during the night ; minimum heat 53 ; rain towards daybreak. 

 Tuesday and Wednesday started early in the morning and went briskly 

 on till eleven, when we halted to breakfast and rest during the heat of day. 

 I opened my saddle-bags and exposed my seeds, lest they should have been 

 wet or damp with the rain last night, and then made a circuit on the high 

 grounds to the south, leaving my watch with Mr. Work to know when to 

 start, and as they would pass near my track would pick me up. Remaining 

 longer than expected I went back and found him and the two men fast 

 asleep ; packed up again and proceeded till dusk, when we camped under 

 a solitary poplar on the margin of a stagnant pond full of Nuphar luteum, 

 advena, and one species of Potamogeton ; water very bad. Warm during the 

 day, a fanning wind during the night, which prevented us from being 

 troubled with mosquitoes. Gathered some seeds of Mimulus albus [sic] and 

 laid in specimens, and put up a paper of seeds of a small species of the same 

 genus. On Wednesday came to the high grounds on the south side of the 

 Spokane River, which is intersected with belts of wood. We intended to 

 stop at a small rivulet in the second one, but our guide (one of the men) 

 missed the road and made too far to the east, where we could get no good 

 water until three o'clock, when we made a stop to take breakfast near a 

 small lake with fine cool water. Made a stay of two hours and proceeded 

 from this lake due north through woods and plains until we came to the 

 banks of the Spokane River, two miles below the falls of that river ; the 

 fall is a perpendicular pitch of 10 feet across the whole breadth of the 



