302 NISQUALLY AND COLUMBIA RIVER. 



grow in the open grounds and on the banks, but they are too small to 

 be of any service to the settler. Several trees which we cut down to 

 make spars for the Vincennes, proved, although healthy in appearance 

 before they were felled, to be more or less defective : the wood was 

 sound and compact on one side only, while on the other it was open- 

 grained and fibrous. 



Several of the officers made excursions into the woods after game. 

 In these they found much difficulty, in consequence of the quantity of 

 fallen trees, that lay crossing each other in every direction. No large 

 game, however, was seen. Of birds, crows, robins, &c, were in 

 abundance; and some beautiful specimens of land-shells (Helices) 

 were obtained. 



Soon after our arrival at Port Discovery, I despatched an Indian 

 with a letter to the fort of the Hudson Bay Company at Nisqually, at 

 the upper end of Puget Sound, to request that a pilot might be sent 

 me. My interview with the native whom I employed for this purpose 

 was amusing. He appeared of a gay and lively disposition: the first 

 thing he did, when brought into the cabin, was to show me a cross 

 and repeat his ave, which he did with great readiness and apparent 

 devotion ; but he burst into loud laughter as soon as he had finished 

 repeating it He and I made many efforts to understand each other, 

 but without much success, except so far as the transmission of the 

 letter to Fort Nisqually, and the reward he was to receive on his 

 return. 



In the excursions of the officers, several burial-places were met with. 

 The corpses are not interred ; but are wrapped in mats and placed 

 upon the ground in a sitting posture, and surrounded with stakes and 

 pieces of plank to protect them from the weather and wild beasts. 



On the 5th of May, the officers were all engaged in surveying, 

 while I occupied one of the points as a station, where I made astrono- 

 mical and magnetic observations. I found the latitude 48° 02' 58" N.: 

 the longitude 123° 02' 07-5" W. ; the variation was 20° 40' E. 



The temperature in the shade, was 55°. 



On the 6th of May, finding that the messenger whom I had 

 despatched to Fort Nisqually did not return, I determined to proceed 

 towards that place without further delay. We therefore got under 

 way at half-past ten, and beat out of Port Discovery : we then stood 

 towards Point Wilson (of Vancouver), which forms one side of the 

 entrance into Admiralty Inlet. Turning the point, we entered the inlet, 

 and soon anchored in Port Townsend, on its northern side, in ten 

 fathoms water. 



Port Townsend is a fine sheet of water, three miles and a quarter 



