206 DOUGLAS' JOURNAL 



the upper parts of Flathead or Clarke's River in company with Mr. Work, 

 as he is under the necessity of making a new arrangement and altering his 

 course in consequence of some misunderstanding (or war party) among the 

 different tribes inhabiting that country. I do not think it would be of 

 much moment to go on his route, as the country is exactly the same as that 

 in this neighbourhood. 



Wednesday, 16th. As I learned from Mr. McLoughlin that the vessel 

 would not sail for England until the 1st of September, and as the bulk 

 of my plants are at the sea, and having a collection of seeds amounting to 

 120 of this year's gleanings, and at the same time, as I also learn that this 

 may be the last ship for some years going direct for England, makes me 

 very desirous of sending all that is possible by her. Should Mr. Simpson (the 

 Governor) not arrive in a few days, I must endeavour to reach the ocean 

 by some means or other, taking with me my collection of seeds to be sent 

 home. To-day packed in a small box five quires of paper, three brown 

 and two cartridge, sixty-nine papers of seeds a portion of those collected 

 on my journey on Lewis and Clarke's River and since my arrival here 

 with two linen shirts to be sent across the Rocky Mountains, where I will 

 find it early in June at Fort Edmonton. Very warm. Mr. Dease spoke 

 to the Little Wolf, a chief of the Okanagan tribe, about guiding me to that 

 place. The river, which is still high with the cascades, rapids, dalles, and 

 whirlpools, renders it impossible to go by water without six or eight men 

 in a canoe ; and indeed there are none at this place sufficiently large at 

 present. 



17th. Packed one bundle of dry plants in my trunk among my little 

 stock of clothing, consisting of one shirt, one pair of stockings and a night- 

 cap, and a pair of old mitts, with an Indian bag of curious workmanship, 

 made of Indian hemp, Apocynum sp., Helonias tenax, 1 and eagles' quills, 

 used for carrying roots and other articles in. A party of twenty-one men 

 and two females belong to the Cootanie tribe, whose lands lay on the shores 

 of the small lake called Cootanie Lake, the source of the Columbia, and that 

 small neck of land at the head-waters of McGillivray's River. An old 

 quarrel of nine years' standing existing between them and the tribes on the 

 Columbia lakes, sixty miles above this place, who are here at present at the 

 salmon fishing at the Falls, gave Mr. Dease and every other person much 

 uneasiness. The parties met stark naked in our camp, painted, some red, 

 black, white, and yellow, with their bows strung, and such as had muskets 

 and ammunition were charged. War-caps of calurnet-eagle feathers were 

 the only particle of dress they had on. As one was in the act of letting the 

 arrow from his bow, aiming at a chief of the other party, Mr. Dease 

 fortunately brought him a blow on the nose which stunned him. The 

 arrow grazed the skin and passed along the rib opposite the heart without 

 doing much injury. The whole day was spent in clamour and haranguing, 

 and as we were not too sure what might be the result, we were prepared for 

 the worst. Mr. D. proposed that they should make peace to-morrow, and 

 that it would be much better they should go to each other's lands as friends 

 than butchering each other like dogs. His advice they said they should 

 1 Xerophyllum a-sphodeloides var. Baker, in Journ. linn. Soc. xvii. p. 467. 



