1825, NOVEMBER— DECEMBER. FORT VANCOUVER 151 



utely dentate ; peduncle bibracteate ; flowers small, white ; tube yellow ; 

 stem nearly round ; a beautiful, erect-growing plant, 4 to 6 inches higli ; 

 on the shores of the Columbia ; fare. A fine species. ? Mimulus alhus. 

 I have frequently sought in vain to find seeds of this valuable addition 

 to that interesting genus. 



(509) (?) Stem sufEruticose covered with chaffy scales ; leaves 



alternate, sessile, linear, revolute ; flowers faint white ; calyx none ; 

 corolla of 5 petals, lanceolate ; stamens 5-9 ; stigma 3-cleft ; capsule 

 1-cellcd, 1-seeded ; seeds angular ; on the sea sands. 



(510) Pinus sp. ; a low tree rarely more than 20 to 40 feet high 

 and seldom thicker than 10 or 18 inches in diameter; on the 

 barren grounds between Cape Foulweather and Whitbey Harbour ; 

 plentiful. 



November \&th till December 31si. — The rainy season being set in, with 

 my infirm state, totally banished every thought from my mind of being 

 able to do much more in the way of botany for a season. It is with serious 

 regret that I am compelled to resign my labours, so much sooner than if 

 that accident had not befallen me. At midday on the 18th the express, 

 consisting of two boats and forty men, arrived from Hudson's Bay which 

 they left on the 21st of July. They were observed at the distance of 

 some miles, rapidly descending the stream. In this distant land, where 

 there is only an annual post, they were by every person made welcome 

 guests. I hastened to the landing-place, congratulating myself on the 

 news from England. I learned with much regret there Were no letters, 

 parcel, or any article for me. I was given to understand they left Hudson's 

 Bay before the arrival of the ship which left London the May before, so 

 that if Mr. Sabine wrote to me, the letter will remain on the other side of 

 the continent till next November. I was exceedingly disappointed. 

 A Mr. McLeod, the person in charge of the party, told me he met Captain 

 Franklin's party on Cumberland Lake on their way to Bear Lake, their 

 winter residence, early in July ; their stay being only a few minutes, 

 Dr. Richardson did not write to me. 



I learned there was a Mr. Drummond attached to them as botanist ; 

 he accompanied Mr. McLeod as far on his route as the foot of the Rocky 

 Mountaips, and is to pass the summer in the country towards Peace and 

 Smoky Rivers. This I take to be Drummond of Forfar, from the descrip- 

 tion given of him. Mr. McLeod, whom I find an agreeable gentlemanly 

 man, and from whom I have had much kindness, informs me that he spent 

 the last five years at Fort Good Hope, on the McKenzie River, and of 

 course possesses more knowledge of that country than any other person ; 

 that (if the natives can be believed, with whom he was well acquainted 

 and perfectly conversant in their language) there is a river nearly equal 

 to the McKenzie to the westward of it, running parallel with it, and falls 

 into the sea near Icy Cape. At the mouth of the said river there is a trading 

 establishment on a woody island, where ships come in the summer. The 

 people have large beards and are very wicked ; they have hanged several 

 of the natives to the rigging and have ever since been in much disrepute. 

 Much stress may with many be laid on this statement with all safety, as 



