brought to my memory in a vivid manner, the delightful excursions I had made in a far distant country where I imbibed a love for natural history from the example of him whose name it bears, and the instruction it was his pleasure to communicate.
April 17, 1825. Mr. Douglas and myself made a journey to Tongue Point, about 5 miles from Fort George. Our journey was fatiguing, as we had to climb over rocks to penetrate dense brush wood & damp marshes. Seldom have I made an excursion attended by more interesting results. My vascula & handkerchiefs were filled with mosses and land shells; phaenogamous plants were abundant; the pools along the banks of the river contained plenty of fluviatile crabs; and the features of the rocks gave me a clear idea of the geological structure of the surrounding country.
2
Gathering Pine Cones With a Gun
By David Douglas
David Douglas had been a gardener in his youth. He was twenty-five when he came to the Northwest Coast in 1824. He was "a fair, partially bald-headed Scotchman, of medium stature and gentlemanly address." He "wandered among the forests of America, his pack upon his back, a gun across his shoulder, and a shaggy terrier at his heels.... He had many ways of charming into wholesome fear the simple savage mind. To show them his skill in shooting he would bring down a bird while flying; by throwing into water an effervescing powder and cooly drinking it off, he told them they had better be ware how they angered one who drank boiling water; he could even call fire from heaven, as seen in his lighting a pipe with a lens."
While Douglas was exploring the Willamette in August, 1825, he found some seeds and scales of a remarkably large pine in the tobacco pouches of the Indians. On inquiring, he found that they came from some mountains to the south of where they were. "No time was lost in ascertaining the existence of this truly grand tree, which I named Pinus lambertiana." In October, 1826, he was on the Umpqua River still on the look-out for the sugar pine. With an Indian guide he began his search.
