Companion to the Botanical Magazine. 581 
devoured every particle of seed I had collected, eat clean through a bundle of 
dried plants, and carried off my soap-brush and razor ! As one was taking away 
my inkstand, which I had been using shortly before, and which lay close to my 
pillow, I raised my gun, which, with my faithful dog, always is placed under my 
blanket by my side, with the muzzle to my feet, and hastily gave him the con- 
tents. When I saw how large and strong a creature this rat was, I ceased to 
wonder at the exploits of the herd in depriving me of my property. The body 
and tail together measured a foot and a half, the back is brown, the belly white ; 
while the tail and enormous ears are each three-quarters of an inch long, with 
whiskers three inches long, and jet black. Unfortunately the specimen was 
spoiled by the size of the shot, which in my haste to secure the animal and re- 
cover my ink-stand, I did not take time to change ; but a female of the same 
sort venturing to return some hours after, I handed it a smaller shot, which did 
not destroy the skin. It was in all respects like the other, except being a little 
smaller." P. 115. 
" About an hour's walk from my camp, (in North California,) I met an Indian, 
who, on perceiving me, instantly strung his bow, placed on his left arm a sleeve 
of racoon skin, and stood on the defensive. Being quite satisfied that this 
conduct was prompted by fear, and not by hostile intentions, the poor fellow 
having probably never seen such a being as myself before, I laid my gun at my 
feet on the ground, and waved my hand for him to come to me, which he did 
slowly and with great caution. I then made him place his bow and quiver of 
arrows beside my gun, and striking a light, gave him a smoke out of my own 
pipe, and a present of a few beads. With my pencil I made a rough sketch of 
the Cone and Pine-tree which I wanted to obtain, and drew his attention to it, 
when he instantly pointed to the hills fifteen or twenty miles distant towards 
the south ; and when I expressed my intention of going thither, cheerfully set 
about accompanying me. At mid-day I reached my long- wished -for pines, and 
lost no time in examining them, and endeavouring to collect specimens and seeds. 
New and strange things seldom fail to make strong impressions, and are there- 
fore frequently over-rated ; so that lest I should never again see my friends in 
England to inform them verbally of this most beautiful and immensely grand 
tree, I shall here state the dimensions of the largest I could find among several 
that had been blown down by the wind. At three feet from the ground its cir- 
cumference is 57 feet 9 inches ; at one hundred and thirty- four feet, 17 feet 5 
inches ; the extreme length 245 feet. The trunks are uncommonly straight, and 
the bark remarkably smooth for such large timber, of a whitish or light-brown 
colour, and yielding a great quantity of bright amber gum. The tallest stems 
are generally unbranched for two-thirds of the height of the tree ; the branches 
rather pendulous, with cones hanging from their points like sugar-loaves in a 
grocer's shop. These cones, however, are seen only on the loftiest trees, and 
the putting myself in possession of three of them, (all I could obtain,) nearly 
brought my life to a close. As it was impossible either to climb the tree or 
hew it down, I endeavoured to knock off the cones by firing at them with ball, 
when the report of my gun brought eight Indians, all of them painted with red 
earth, armed with bows, arrows, bone-tipped spears, and flint-knives. They 
appeared any thing but friendly. I endeavoured to explain to them what I 
wanted, and they seemed satisfied, and sat down to smoke ; but presently I per- 
ceived one of them string his bow, and another sharpen his flint-knife with a 
