1826, APRIL. KETTLE PALLS 165 



they impart a grace to the scanty verdure of American spring that can 

 only be equalled by the European daisy or the common primrose. 



(33) Pulmonaria sp. ; perennial ; leaves glaucous, sessile ; flowers 

 blue ; a small plant, 4 to 8 inches high ; abundant on the plains and open 

 woods. 



From Sunday the 16th till Wednesday 19th, continued to make 

 small trips in the country contiguous to the junction of the Spokane River ; 

 and being so early in the spring, more for the purpose of viewing the soil 

 and face of the country, with any bird or animal I might pick up. 



On Wednesday at eleven o'clock, in company with Mr. Dease and his 

 party of fourteen men and two boats, I left this place for the new intended 

 establishment called Port ColviUe, near the Kettle Falls, ninety miles 

 further up the river. I am much indebted to this gentleman for the care 

 he took in placing my paper and other articles in a safe place in the boat, 

 and for the kindness he showed myself by inviting me to a seat in his own 

 boat. The whole distance is very mountainous and rugged, the nearer 

 the Rocky Mountains more so, and more thickly wooded, of three species of 

 Pinus. One P. resinosa (?) ; P. not unlike taxifolia ^ found near the coast, 

 but by no means attains such a size ; P. Larix 2 is found in abundance in the 

 mountain vaUeys, much larger than any I have seen on the other side of the 

 continent or even read of. I measured some 30 feet in circumference, and 

 several that were blown down by the late storms 144 feet long ; wood clean 

 and perfectly straight. On the plains and valleys there is a thick sward 

 of grass, and interspersed among the detached rocks are several species of 

 shrubs which at this season I cannot ascertain ; the greater part of the hUls 

 covered with snow. Warm during the day, keen frosts at night ; maxi- 

 mum 65°, minimum 28°. Camped on the channel of the river as no place 

 could be found more suitable, having made twenty-seven miles ; river very 

 rapid. At 4 a.m. on Thursday raised camp and proceeded on our route 

 prosperously throughout, having gained forty miles ; the whole distance 

 I walked on foot except being crossed three times, as I could not pass by 

 steep rocks. On Friday at daylight continued our journey, and as we had 

 gained a very rapid place where a portage had to be made, we took break- 

 fast a little earlier than usual, being nine o'clock. This rapid, which nearly 

 equals the Grand Rapids, 150 miles from the ocean, having no name, I 

 called it Thomson's Rapids after the first person who ever descended the 

 whole chain of the river from its source to the ocean. About ten o'clock 

 it began to rain heavily and continued so until four in the afternoon^ 

 Arrived at the Falls at six in the evening, thoroughly drenched to the skin,, 

 and gladly walked over the portage three-quarters of a mile to a small 

 circular plain surrounded by high hiUs on all sides, where the new establish- 

 ment is to be. After our tents were pitched we had a comfortable supper 

 of salmon-trout, and dried bufialo-meat served up to us by the man who 

 started the day before us with a band of horses. Although my plants were 

 covered with a double oUcloth, I found it inadequate to keep them dry, 

 and, lest any should be injured, such as were wet I put in dry paper, 



' Pseudotsuga Douglasii, Mast, in Joum. R. Hort. Soo. xiv. p. 245. 

 - Larix occidentalis. Mast. loc. cit. p. 218. 



