Bd andes o eS a See 
eS. te See ULT Naa 
af 
NORTH CALIFORNIA. 
. two in the afternoon, Baptiste M‘Kay re- 
t 
turned from the coast; such bad weather, 
he says, he never experienced. The tribes, 
too, are so hostile, that one of the party 
has been killed, and an Indian woman, wife 
of one of our hunters, with five children, 
carried off; what became of them we have 
never been able to learn. It is a relief to 
find our little party becoming stronger, and 
the addition of M*Kay is peculiarly wel- 
come, as he is so good a hunter, that he 
will soon procure us fresh food. 
_ Thursday the 2nd. Our hopes from 
M'Kay's prowess are realized, he has 
brought home a fine doe of the Long-tail- 
~ ed Deer, and I gladly turned cook and soon 
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prepared a large kettle-full of excellent 
venison-soup. Just as we were sitting 
down to eat, thirteen of our hunters arrived 
in five canoes, and of course we invited 
them to partake. This evening has passed 
. much more comfortably than the eleven 
preceding ones, and although the society 
may be somewhat uncouth, still the sight 
of a visage of one’s own colour is pleasing, 
after being so long among Indians. We 
have all been entertaining one another, in 
turns, with accounts of our chase and other 
adventures, and I find that I stand high 
among them as a workman, and passable 
as a hunter. 
Friday the 8rd. Early this morning 
made a trip of about twelve miles, in hopes 
of meeting Mr. M‘Leod, who is daily ex- 
Pected. My course lay along the river- 
banks, which are steep and woody, the 
‘Stream averaging seven to eight hundred 
Yards wide, with a fall of four feet, owing 
fo the tide, which runs thirty miles up the 
Tiver from the sea. Collected a fine shrub, 
with abundant racemes of red juicy ber- 
‘Mes; also Vaccinium ovatum (Bot. Reg. 
* 1354), loaded with fruit. The former is 
Rot eaten, but the latter is pleasantly acid, 
and much used by the Killiemuck Indians, 
d 1s also another species of Vaccinium, 
that I never saw before. 
- Saturday the 4th. Late last night we 
Were joined by Mr. M*Leod, who has been a 
T pa way to the southward. He informs me 
this river, the Umptqua or Arguilar, 
133 
is three-fourths of a mile broad, where it 
flows into the sea, but that a sand-bar, 
which crosses the mouth, renders it impas- 
sable for shipping. Twenty-three miles 
further South, is another river of similar 
size, and affording the same sort of salmon . 
and salmon-trout. At its mouth are nu- 
merous bays, and the surrounding country 
is less mountainous than the North ; and 
twenty miles further still, is yet another 
river, but smaller than the two preceding, 
deriving its source, according to the Indi- 
ans' account, very far uptheinterior. Here 
M‘Leod’s investigation has ceased for the 
present, as he waits till all his party is col- 
lected, before proceeding further. The 
Indians state, that sixty miles to the south- 
ward, where the natives are very numerous, 
a much larger river, surpassing, as one 
stated who had seen both streams, the Co- 
lumbia in size, gains the ocean. The lati- 
tude is about 41° North. Mr. M‘Leod ob- 
served that the vegetation changed materi- 
ally as he proceeded to the South, the 
Pines disappearing altogether, and giving 
place to the myrtaceous tree which I have 
described, of which he measured several 
individuals 12 feet round, and 70 to 100 
feet high. Its fragrant leaves, when shaken 
by the least breeze of wind, diffuse a fra- 
grance through the whole grove. All the 
natives, like those in this neighbourhood, 
had never seen white men before, and 
viewed them narrowly, and with great cu- 
riosity. They were kind and hospitable in 
the extreme, assisting to kindle the fire and 
make the encampment; while they were 
delighted beyond measure at being paid 
with a ring, button, bead, or any the small- 
est trifle of European manufacture. They 
have the same garments and dwellings as 
the people here. As Mr. M*Leod tells me 
that two of his men are going to Fort Van- 
couver with a despatch on Monday, I mean 
to accompany them, the weather being such 
as to prevent my botanizing to any advan- 
tage ; besides, it is doubtful whether there 
will be any other opportunity of my re- 
turning thither before the beginning of 
March, when I mean to start for the oppo- 
site side of the Continent. “Thus I have 
