148 DOUGLAS' JOURNAL 



"with the cold and rain. After a comfortless night's rest I resumed my 

 route at daylight, and as I was disappointed in not procuring salmon 

 at the village I passed yesterday, it being abandoned, I had nothing to 

 eat except a small cake of chocolate about two ounces, so with as much 

 speed as possible I proceeded to Cape Foulweather, which I gained in the 

 evening, forty miles being made that day along the coast. As I had here 

 a portage of sixteen miles to make, too great an undertaking to be done 

 by so few, I sent two of the Indians with the canoe to the Columbia. 

 As we had not this day had any food, they preferred leaving that same 

 evening in hopes of obtaining some fish ; my guide and the other two 

 remained with me. They had not been away more than two hours when 

 a most violent hurricane set in from the west, producing an agitation on 

 the shoal water frightful in the extreme. I was much alarmed for their 

 safety, but learned on my return they happily put into a sheltered creek 

 at the commencement of the storm and remained till it abated. I was 

 very hungry in the evening, and went out and gathered a few berries of 

 Arbutus Uva-ursi,^ being the only thing which could be found at the place. 

 The wind was so high, with heavy rain, that scarcely any fire could be 

 made. Long ere day I was ready to leave Cape Foulweather, which 

 name it merits ; being in a very bad state for walking. All the wild- 

 fowl had fled to the more sheltered parts ; not a bird of any description 

 could be seen. Being the two days without food, I resolved to endeavour 

 to walk over the portage to the north side of Whitbey Harbour, where 

 I was informed by my guide he expected a fishing party from his village 

 to be. On my arrival there at six o'clock, being on my legs from four 

 in the morning, I hardly can give an idea of my afllicted state. The 

 storm continued with equal violence, which prevented the fishing party 

 from leaving their village, which increased my misery. While my guide 

 and the Indians were collecting fuel, I made a small booth of pine branches, 

 grass, and a few old mats ; my blanket being drenched in wet the pre- 

 ceding day, and no opportunity of drying it, the night raining heavily, 

 I deemed it prudent not to lie down to sleep. Therefore I spent this 

 night at the fire. On Saturday I found myself so much broken down 

 and my knee so much worse that I did not stir out for the whole of the 

 day. A little before dusk the weather moderated, when I crawled out 

 with my gun ; providentially I killed five ducks with one shot, which, as 

 might be expected, were soon cooked ; one of the Indians ate a part raw, 

 the other did not take time to pluck the feathers off but literally burned 

 them to save time. I was certainly very hungry, but as soon as I saw 

 the birds fall my appetite fled ; it had brought such a change over me 

 that I could hardly persuade myself I had been in want. I made a basin 

 of tea, on which, with a bit of duck, I made a good supper. Very little 

 sufiiced me. At midnight my guides arrived ; our fire had attracted their 

 notice, and, as the chief was expected, they had come to wait on him. I 

 was asleep, and did not know until Tha-a-muxi roused me in the morning 

 to embark. He would not allow them to wake me or make any noise, 

 having had no sleep last night and very little the two nights before. 

 ' Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi, A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. Am. ii. i. p. 27. 



