MR. DOUGLAS' SECOND VISIT TO THE COLUMBIA. 157 
Garry, who most punctually forwarded 
your parcel to me, you will perceive how 
very precious a thing a letter is to me now- 
a-days. 
-Botany and ornamental gardening have 
sustained a great loss in the death of Mr. 
Barclay; the more to be regretted, as no 
one seems to take that place which he held 
forso many years with honour to himself 
and advantage to the Science as one of its 
most liberal patrons. Last October, from 
the entrance of the Columbia River, by 
the last vessel which sailed for England, 
commanded by my excellent friend; J. E. 
Grave, Lieut. R. N., I wrote to you at 
some length, and then mentioned that I 
had shipped in the Sandwich Islands, on 
board the Sarah of London, a South-Sea- 
man, bound for London direct, the whole- 
of my Californian collection. "This vessel 
sailed from the Island of Woahoo on the 
8th of September. Since I wrote to you, 
the season being winter, I have little new 
to communicate : during the interval I have 
made a journey, as I proposed, North of 
the Columbia, to New Georgia, and a most 
laborious one it was. My object was to 
determine the position of the Head Lands 
on the coast, and the culminating points of 
the many prodigiously high snowy peaks 
of the Interior, their altitudes, &c., and as 
I was favoured with exceedingly fine clear 
weather, this was effected much to my sa- 
üsfaction. On this excursion I secured 
about two hundred species of Mosses; but 
as I am rather ignorant of this tribe, there 
may be a few more or less: certain it is, 
however, that there are many fine kinds 
that are totally unknown to me ; and per- 
haps even you may find some of them new. 
I have also some interesting Fuci from 
Dey, three of which are decidedly not in 
r. Lurner's work, and very noble species 
they are. I have bespoken the services of 
all the Captains on the North- West coast, 
to bring me ‘all sorts of . sea- weeds, 
simply coiled up, dried, and put in a bag. 
This winter has been drier, but far more 
Severe than the preceding ‘season. The 
Columbia was closed with ice for four 
weeks at Menzies’ Island, where it rather 
exceeds a mile in breadth, the thermome- 
ter indicating 22° of Fahrenheit, which is 
bitterly cold for the shores of the Pacific, 
in the parallel of 45. This gave me an ex- 
cellent opportunity of multiplying my as- 
tronomical observations, on the angular 
distance between the moon’s limb and the 
sun ; the planets Venus, Mercury, Saturn, 
and Mars, and the fixed stars ; not less than 
eight thousand observations in about six 
hundred sets, separately computed, for the 
purpose of ascertaining the absolute longi- 
tude of Fort Vancouver. Besides, I ob- 
served the beautiful eclipse of the moon 
on the night of January the 5th of this 
year, with many of the eclipses of Jupiter's 
satellites. Indeed my whole skill was ex- 
erted on these operations, in order to obtain 
their position with the greatest accuracy, as 
all my chronometric longitudes are reduced 
to that meridian. I merely mention these 
things that you may not tax me with idle- 
ness, a character with which I am charged 
by the Londoners, and perhaps more de- 
servedly in that great metropolis than else- 
where. I hope that you have not finished 
the fine Order Conifere in the Flora Bo- 
reali- Americana, that you may include the 
Pines discovered in my late journeys, viz. 
Pinus venusta, Sabini, and grandis. 
I quitted the ocean on the 19th of March, 
and followed the course of the river to this 
spot, picking up a few of the early-flower- 
ing plants, and better specimens of others 
which I had already possessed : among them 
are some novel species of Platyspermum, 
Thysanocarpus, and Ranunculus: a new 
Phlox, and a few Mosses. The disparity 
of climate between this point and the coast 
is very striking, though the difference of 
latitude be only 3°, and of longitude 6°. 
There, in the middle of March, many plants 
were in bloom; while here last night we 
had a new fall of snow of some depth, and 
the ground is still speckled with old snow. 
I proceed to give you a short sketch of 
my intended movements this year. 
As soon as the season permits, which I 
trust will be in a few days, I shall leave 
this spot for the northward, travelling some- 
