MR. DOUGLAS' SECOND VISIT TO THE COLUMBIA. 
. the same happiness was conferred on me 
. on the 16th of April, by your last, which 
was exactly a year old, and in which you 
mention having addressed me just two 
months previously. I imagine this last 
letter must have been sent by Captain 
Back, or the annual express of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company ; but I had left the sea 
before the express arrived. 
My meeting with Dr. Gairdner afforded 
me heart-felt satisfaction, not only because 
he is a most accomplished and amiable 
young gentleman, devotedly attached to 
Natural History, and warmly recommended 
by you, but also because he told me of 
your health, and that of your family: the 
additions to your Herbarium, &c. I en- 
deavoured to show him the attentions to 
which every friend of yours is justly en- 
titled at my hands, and only regret that 
our time together was so short; for he is a 
person whom I highly respect. Mr. Tolmie 
had quitted the Columbia for the North- 
West coast before I arrived, and thus de- 
prived me of the pleasure of seeing an old 
student of yours. I wrote to him twice, 
indicating those parts of the country which 
Promise to yield the best harvest to the 
aturalist, and particularly requesting his 
attention to the sea-weeds; but have not 
heard from him since, nor indeed at any 
üme. I much regret not having seen this 
gentleman, for I could have told him many 
things useful for a young man entering this 
Country as a Botanist or traveller to know. 
However, I explained them all to Dr. 
irdne 
r. 
You will probably enquire why I did 
not address you by the despatch of the 
ship to Europe last year. I reached the 
Sea-coast greatly broken down, having suf- 
fered no ordinary toil, and, on my arrival, 
Was soon prostrated by fever. My last 
letter to you was written from the interior 
of the Columbia, and bore date about the 
middle of April, 1833 (last year), just 
before starting on my northern journey. 
Therein I mentioned my intention of writing 
the North-West coast of America. The latter gentle- 
wan is stationed at Fort M‘Loughlin, in Millbank 
Sound, N. lat, 52, poe : 
a few lines to you daily, which I did, up to 
the 13th of June, a most disastrous day for 
me, on which I lost, what I may call, my 
all! On that morning, at the Stony Islands 
of Fraser’s River (the Columbia of M‘Ken- 
zie,—see the map in his 4to. edition), 
my canoe was dashed to atoms, when I 
lost every article in my possession, saving 
f rough 
d barometrical observ- 
ations, with my instruments. My botan- 
ical notes are gone, and, what gives me 
most concern, my journal of occurrences 
also, as this is what can never be replaced, 
even by myself. All the articles needful 
for pursuing my journey were destroyed, 
so that my voyage for this season was 
frustrated. I cannot detail to you the 
labour and anxiety this occasioned me, — 
both in body and mind, to say nothing of 
the hardships and sufferings I endured. 
Still I reflect, with pleasure, that no lives 
were sacrificed. I passed over the cataract 
and gained the shore in a whirlpool below, 
not however by swimming, for I was ren- 
dered helpless, and the waves washed me 
on the rocks. The collection of plants con- 
sisted of about four hundred species—two 
hundred and fifty of these were mosses, 
and a few of them new. This disastrous 
occurrence has much broken my strength 
and spirits. The country over which I 
passed was all mountainous, but most so 
towards the Western Ocean :—still it will, 
ere long, be inhabited. I have written 
to Mr. Hay, Under Secretary of State, 
respecting the boundary line on the Co- 
lumbia, as the American government is 
anxious to obtain a footing there.! 
! The following further particulars of this 
disastrous voyage, given to me by Archibald M*Don- 
ald, Esq., a gentleman in the Hudson Bay Company's 
service, who visited Scotland, early in the year 
1835 :— 
Douglas, in case it may 
i ertain of laying something 
the public, prior to Mr. Douglas' own return to Eng- 
land. Itis very little that I can say, beyond what is 
expressed in his own letters ; but, little as it is, I 
have thought it a good pl to accompany it with a 
rough topographical sketch of the country, to which 
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