ON THE COLOMBIA RIVER. 
he and his family had tasted for a long 
time. I had also some game in my saddle 
bags, which I had killed by the way, and 
of which I gave him half. The principal 
object of my visit to Mr. Finlay was to get 
my gun repaired, and as he was the only 
person who could do it, within a distance 
of eight hundred miles, and this article 
being a matter of, perhaps, vital import- 
ance to me, I hastened to inform him of 
my request, though my imperfect know- 
ledge of French, the only language that he 
could speak, much limited our intercourse, 
and prevented my deriving from him all 
the information that I wished to obtain. 
Having taken a walk up the river in the 
afternoon, I found, on my return at night, 
that Mr. Finlay had obligingly put my gun 
into good order, for which I presented him 
with a pound of tobacco, being the only 
article I had to give. 
Two days were devoted to botanizing in 
this neighbourhood, where I found three 
fine species of Ribes in flower: the R. au- 
reum, which bears, as Mr. Finlay informs 
me, à very large and excellent yellow 
berry (he never saw it black or brown, 
though I afterwards found this variety); a 
white-blossomed, apparently new species, 
whose snowy and fragrant long spikes of 
flowers are enough to recommend it for 
culture in England, even without consider- 
ing its abundant produce of well-flavoured 
and black currants, which resemble those 
of our country, except in being rather more 
acid ; and another kind, with a green flow- 
er, that is succeeded by a small black 
gooseberry. Of all these, and many other 
Plants, I engaged Mr. Finlay to collect spe- 
cimens and seeds for me; as well as of an 
Interesting kind of Allium, which grows 
about forty miles distant, and of which the 
Toots, that I saw, were as large as a nut, 
esga particularly mild and well tasted. 
found to be R, viscosissimum (Hook. FI. 
— Talso Saw a new Pinus (P. ponderosa), 
kinds of Misseltoe, one large and 
111 
plant (Arceubothrium Ozycedri, Hook. 
Fl. Bor. Am. v. 1. t. 99), parasitical on 
Pinus Banksiana, which is not rare here, 
though of smaller stature than it attains on 
the other side of the Rocky Mountains. A 
large Bear, Ursus horribilis, was killed by 
Mr. Finlay, but it was too large to be pre- 
served. Among the seeds I procured, 
were those of Pentstemon Scoulert (Bot. 
Reg. t. 1277), Claytonia lanceolata, Ery- 
thronium grandiflorum (Bot. Reg. t. 
1786), and Rubus Nutkanus (Bot. Reg. 
t. 1368, and Bot. Mag. t. 3458). 
Saturday the 13th. As I thought of 
bending my steps again towards the Co- 
lumbia, Mr. Finlay offered that one of his 
sons should escort me, to which I agreed. 
Before quitting him, I made some inquiry 
about a sort of sheep found in this neigh- 
bourhood, about the size of that describ- 
ed by Lewis and Clarke, but, instead of 
wool, having short thick coarse hair, of 
a brownish-grey colour, whence its 
name of Mouton Gris, as it is called by 
the voyageurs, is derived. The horns 
of the male, weighing sometimes 18 to 
24 lbs., are dingy-white, and form a sort of 
volute, those of the female bend back, curv- 
ing outwards at the point, and are from 
ten inches to a foot long. The flesh is 
fine, equal to that of the domestic sheep. 
It inhabits the lofty mountains, and is sel- 
dom seen in any numbers except on those 
whose summits are covered with perpetual 
snow. Mr. Finlay gave me hopes that 
when he visited the high mountains further 
up the country in autumn, he might be 
able, notwithstanding the shyness of these 
animale, and the inaccessible places to 
which they generally betake themselves 
when disturbed, to procure me a specimen 
of this highly interesting creature. To 
Mr. Finlay's sons I offered a small compen- 
sation, if they would preserve for me the 
skins of different animals, showing them 
at the same time how this should be done. 
On my way back from Spokan River to 
the Columbia, I was obliged to take the 
same way of crossing the Barriére River as 
I had done when coming, and again suffered 
a good deal from the wetness of my clothes, 
