16i 



Scientific Intelligence. 



I may mention that 1 obtained Pinus ponderosa, Ruhus nutJcamis, 

 Cupressus nutJcatensis, &c., all species interesting from the locality, and 

 worthy of the seed being sent home. As this account of my travels must, 

 for various reasons, be merely a very short outline, I cannot enlarge on 

 the various sights and adventures I saw and mingled in on a journey 

 which people tried to persuade me was dangerous in the extreme, and 

 which only a sense of my duty to the expedition led me to undertake. In 

 every case the Indians treated us well, though this might perhaps be due 

 to the close watch which was kept on them, and the precaution used to 

 avoid treachery. Circumstances have since shown that this was not un- 

 necessary. We returned on the 20th June with all the eclat of a success- 

 ful expedition. The weather, however, during the whole of our trip, was 

 very wet, the rain pouring from morning to night, for sometimes a week 

 at one stretch. I landed, however, on every opportunity, going as far as 

 the dense bush would allow me, and returning regularly every afternoon 

 drenched to the skin (for the Indians had stolen my waterproof coat), with 

 no place to dry my clothes, for a temporary fire was only lit in a grate on 

 deck to cook our food (twice a day), and the rain soon extinguished it. In 

 the little " pigeon-house," called a cabin, we had barely room to squat 

 about, surrounded by trading articles — blankets, beads, tobacco, brass wire, 

 paint, calico, &c. ; and often, when turning into our " bunks" at night, 

 we found that the rain had penetrated and soaked our beds. As you may 

 well suppose, our paper got but an imperfect drying. On one occasion, 

 in despair I had to take it under my blanket at night. Of course, all 

 these inconveniences were counterbalanced by many other pleasant occur- 

 rences — such as seeing strange scenes, wild men, new places. On the 

 whole, with all the anxieties and dangers we w«re surrounded by, I do 

 not know whether I would not have preferred it to an excursion in Swit- 

 zerland or Clova — at all events, I do not regret it now, as it taught me, 

 what no amount of book-learning or teaching could ever train me to — 

 namely, a familiarity with danger, and with the savage tribes through 

 whose country I must travel solitary for a long time yet to come. I now 

 understand the method of treating Indians, their customs, and the Chinook 

 jargon — the ordinary language of communication with the whites — toler- 

 ably well. I can now strike bargains, engage men, and travel alone 

 without any assistance from the whites. I need scarcely tell you how 

 valuable this proves to me in such a very rough roadless country, only 

 peopled by a civilised population in a few places in the vicinity of the 

 mines, &c., and where nothing can be procured except at enormous 

 prices. 



On the 24th June I started on another excursion to explore the botany 

 of the interior lakes, hitherto almost unknown. As the sawmills at 

 Alberni were stopped at that time to undergo some repairs, four men ac- 

 companied me in my excursion. We proceeded up the Somass River to 

 a lake, on the lower arm of which Anderson and Co. have established 

 a " logging camp." After exploring a small arm six miles long, and 

 sleeping for a night among the moss, and having the dubious pleasure 

 of hearing " the wolf's long howl from Unalaska's shore" (by the way, 

 we were only a few days' sail from Unalaska), owing to a storm arising 

 on the lake we were prevented from returning, as we had expected, to the 

 backwoods camp. We returned at daybreak perfectly ravenous. That 

 same morning we started in a canoe, with an Indian guide (Quasson, third 

 chief of the Opischesats), up a long arm of the lake, which no one knew 

 the termination of. We paddled along all day, landing here and there 

 along the wooded banks to cook our dinner, or to "prospect" on an 

 island. I found a Thuja allied to Thuja gigantea (Craigana, Balf ), 



