1826, OCTOBER. THE UMPQUA RIVER 225 



very courteously brought one very large canoe, in which I embarked and 

 swam the horses at the stern, holding the bridles in my hand. I made a 

 stay of a few minutes, and, as I found my young guide to be less conversant 

 in their tongue than I expected, my visit was to me the less interesting. 

 Had some nuts of Corylus, roots of Phalangium Quamash, 1 and a preparation 

 of meal made from the seeds of a Syngenesia already in my possession, with 

 the nuts of my smelling-tree, which are roasted in the embers previous 

 to use. The dress of the men is skins of the small deer undressed, formed 

 into shirts and trousers, and those of the richer sort striped and ornamented 

 with shells, principally marine, which proves our distance from the ocean 

 to be short. The women, a petticoat of the tissue of Thuya occidentalis, 

 made like that worn by Chenook females, and a sort of gown of dressed 

 leather, in form differing from the men's only by the sleeves being more open. 

 I had gathered for me a quantity of nuts of my smelling-tree, for which I 

 presented them with a few beads, brass rings, and a pipe of tobacco. The 

 children on seeing me ran with indescribable fear, and on the first inter- 

 view only one man and one woman could be seen. The others I conceive 

 came on being made acquainted with my friendly disposition. Measured 

 several trees 2 feet diameter and 60 to 70 feet high : a decoction of the 

 leaves and tender shoots is used by them and is by no means an unpalatable 

 beverage. At 2 P.M. continued my route over a low hill and on the other 

 side of which I was given to understand I should again fall on the river, 

 and by that means save a long circuitous bend of the river, which I found 

 perfectly correct. Just as I was on the bank of the river, a herd of small 

 deer, seventeen in number, rose ; one of the females I shot through the 

 vertebrae on the fore-part of the shoulder and it dropped instantly on the 

 spot. Since I left Fqrt Vancouver I have seen them frequently run 

 several hundred yards before falling after a ball passing through the 

 heart. As I wanted to ascend as near the high mountains as possible, 

 lying in a south-easterly direction, I sought up and down the river for 

 a fording-place but could find none, and shortly came to the resolution of 

 making a raft, which I did, and after an hour's hard labour, in the course 

 of which my hands were in a sad condition with blisters (and after all I 

 found it by far too small), and finished the labour of this day by kindling 

 my fire and roasting a few ribs of my venison for supper. 



Thursday, 19th. Although the thermometer stood not lower than 41, 

 yet it was so chilly and raw, with a very heavy dew, that I was under the 

 necessity of rising three times to make up the fire, having only one blanket 

 over me and a small piece of buffalo-skin under, which during the day serves 

 in lieu of a horse-rug. My hands being so bad that I could not use the 

 hatchet, and being only nine miles from Mr. McLeod, I addressed a note to 

 him informing him of my case and sent it by my Indian guide. In the mean- 

 time, I took my gun and went out on the chase. Got only one mile from 

 my camp when I wounded a very large buck through the shoulder, and as 

 he was limping away from me I was in hopes of overtaking him, when 

 unfortunately I fell into a deep gully among a quantity of dead wood, in 

 which position I know not. I was on my belly and my face covered with 



1 Camassia esculenta, Baker, in Journ. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 257. 



Q 



