History of Oregon Literature/Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
THE FIRST SCIENTISTS IN OREGON
This morning in the roadside grass—
I got my skirts all sopping wet—
I took it to the botany class.
THEODOSIA GARRISON
Except that they richly deserve separate consideration because of the nature of their services, the first scientists might have been included with the explorers, for in a very important way they were themselves explorers and were frequently members of the exploring expeditions.
How fascinating the early Oregon world seemed to these accurate observers whose only motive was to find out and to learn, is revealed in the flavored quality of their writings, so often and so greatly removed from any of the dry-as -dust characteristics of such literature. In their reports they fortunately felt justified in giving not only the scientific discovery but also the conditions under which the discovery was made.
Their eagerness would not be deterred by hazards. They took long chances with their lives in order to get a specimen of a strange cormorant or a 14-inch pine cone.
Thus across the years they touch us with the contagion of their curiosity. We share their zeal and take part in their adventures, and the tree or animal or physical feature takes on a romance that is imparted thereafter to our appreciation of the particular object when we observe it today.
This chapter contains brief selections from the field journals or other writings of John Scouler, David Douglas, John Kirk Townsend, Thomas Nuttall and Thomas Condon. Among the others who made studies in Oregon in the early days were Archibald Menzies, naturalist and botanist with the Vancouver expedition in 1792; David Thompson, astronomer and surveyor to the Northwest Company, who in 1811 spent a week at Astoria and the winter in the Inland Empire; James Dwight Dana, geologist, and Horatio Hale, ethnologist and philologist, with the Wilkes expedition in Oregon in 1841; and George Gibbs, geologist and a student of Chinook jargon.
All but two of these came and did their field work and left. George Gibbs, after his survey was finished, built a log cabin near Fort Steilacoom "and lived rather the life of a hermit." Dr. Thomas Condon remained permanently and hunted fossils in Oregon, during half a century, making discoveries that brought him worldwide recognition as a paleontologist.
1
A Botanist in Fort George in 1825
By Dr. John Scouler
In his Journal of Voyage to Northwest America, from which these selections are taken, he describes his general and scientific observations during a trip made in 1824, 1825 and 1826. His name lives in the common "Saint John's wort"—Hypericum scouleri—and in a mountain harebell—Campanula scouleri.
April 15, 1825.
Today I collected a considerable number of cryptogamous plants, and none of the plants I ever met with on the N.W. coast gave me greater pleasure than Hookeria lanus." I found beautiful specimens of the charming little plant with its constant attendant, "Hypnum Splendens," growing by the margins of a shady rivulet among a brushwood composed of "Menziesia ferruginea." This pleasing occurrence 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.
I made him place his bow and quiver beside my gun, and then struck a light and gave him to smoke and a few beads. With my pencil I made a rough sketch of the cone and pine I wanted and showed him it, when he instantly pointed to the hills about fifteen or twenty miles to the south. As I wanted to go in that direction, he seemingly with much good-will went with me. At midday I reached my long-wished Pinus (called by the Umpqua tribe Na'tele), and lost no time in examining and endeavoring to collect specimens and seeds. New or strange things seldom fail to make great impressions, and often at first we are liable to over-rate them; and least I should never see my friends to tell them verbally of this most beautiful and immensely large tree, I now state the dimensions of the largest one I could find that was blown down by the wind. Three feet from the ground, 57 feet 9 inches in circumference; 134 feet from the ground, 17 feet 5 inches; extreme length, 215 feet. The trees are remarkably straight; bark uncommonly smooth for such large timber, of a whitish or light brown colour; and yields a great quantity of gum of a bright amber colour. The large trees are destitute of branches, generally for two-thirds the length of the tree; branches pendulous, and the cones hanging from their points like small sugar-loaves in a grocer's shop, it being only on the very largest trees that cones are seen, and the putting of myself in possession of three cones (all I could) nearly brought my life to an end. Being unable to climb or hew down any, I took my gun and was busy clipping them from the branches with ball when eight Indians came at the report of my gun. They were all painted with red earth, armed with bows, arrows, spears of bone, and flint knives, and seemed to me anything but friendly. I endeavoured to explain to them what I wanted and they seemed satisfied and sat down to smoke, but had no sooner done so than I perceived one string his bow and an other sharpen his flint knife with a pair of wooden pincers and hang it on the wrist of the right hand, which gave me ample testimony of their inclination. To save myself I could not do by flight, and without hesitation I went backwards six paces and cocked my gun, and then pulled from my belt one of my pistols, which I held in my left hand. I was determined to fight for my life. As I as much as possible endeavoured to preserve my coolness and perhaps did so, I stood eight or ten minutes looking at them and they at me without a word passing, till one at last, who seemed to be the leader, made a sign for tobacco, which I said they should get on condition of going and fetching me some cones. They went, and as soon as out of sight I picked up my three cones and a few twigs, and made a quick retreat to my camp, which I gained at dusk. The Indian who undertook to be my last guide I sent off, lest he should betray me. Wood of the pine fine and very heavy; leaves short, in five, with a very short sheath bright green; cones, one 14½ inches long, one 14, and one 13½, and all containing fine seed. A little before this the cones are gathered by the Indians, roasted on the embers, quartered, and the seeds shaken out, which are then dried before the fire and pounded into a sort of flour, and sometimes eaten round. How irksome a night is to such a one as me under my circumstances! Cannot speak a word to my guide, not a book to read, constantly in expectation of an attack, and the position I am now in is lying on the grass with my gun beside me, writing by the light of my Columbian candle—namely, a piece of wood containing rosin.
3
The Violet-Green Cormorant
By John Kirk Townsend
This description is from John Kirk Townsend's Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River. He made this journey as a member of Wyeth's party in 1834, and spent three months around the Columbia river, collecting specimens wherever possible. He was 25 years old at the time. “Among his discoveries in the Western United States were the Sage thrasher, Townsend solitaire, hermit, Audobon and Townsend warblers, Townsend blue bird, Harris woodpecker,” and others.
This most splendid of all the speciaes of cormorants yet discovered, inhabits in considerable numbers the Rocky Cape at the entrance of the Columbia river, upon the sides of which, it often rests, and no doubt rears its young within the natural cavities which front the tempestuous ocean, and in situations wholly inaccessible to man. Sometimes many weeks elapse in which not a single cormorant is seen, when suddenly a flock of fifty or sixty, is observed to enter the bay, every individual of which immediately commences an assiduous search for the small fish and mollusks which constitute its food. It never ascends the river, but keeping almost constantly around the cape, under shelter of the enormous breakers which are incessantly dashing against it, successfully defies all attempts to shoot it. The procuring of the only specimen which I was ever enabled to kill, almost cost the lives of myself and eight men! Our boat was carried with frightful velocity into the furious breakers, and a full hour was consumed in unremitting efforts to escape the danger towards which the swift current was hurrying us.
4
The Large-Leaved Maple
By Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall was also a member of the Wyeth expedition ot 1834. He was much older than Townsend, being 48. While on the Columbia he made trips into the surrounding country, collecting botanical specimens as far as the falls of the Willamette. He was of a retiring nature. He was the author of The North American Sylva, in three volumes, from which this description is selected.
The topographical range of this splendid species of Maple, wholly indigenous to the north-west coast of America or the territory of Oregon, is a somewhat narrow strip along the coast of the Pacific, not extending into the interior beyond the alluvial tracts of the Oregon, which commence at the second cataracts of that river (known by the name of the Dalles), and at the distance of about 130 miles from the sea. To the north, it extends probably to the latitude of 50°, or the borders of Fraser's river, and although by Decandolle, it is said to extend to Upper California on the south, we did not observe it in the vicinity of Monterey ; and therefore conclude that its utmost boundary in this direction must be to St. Francisco, in about the 38th degree of latitude. This fine species was discovered by Menzies, and afterwards collected by Lewis and Clark. It nowhere presents a more interesting appearance to the traveler than in the immediate vicinity of the falls of the Oregon; its dense shade, due to the great magnitude of its foliage and lofty elevation, as well as the wide extent of its spreading summit, are greatly contrasted with the naked, woodless plains of that river, which continue uninterruptedly to the mountains; a tract over which the traveller seeks in vain for shade or shelter, and where the fuel requisite to cook his scanty meal, has to be collected from the accidental drift wood which has been born down from the distant mountains of its sources.
The largest trunks of this species that we have seen, were on the rich alluvial plains of the Wahlamet, and particularly near to its confluence with the Tlacamas; here we saw trees from 50 to 90 feet in height, with a circumference of 8 to 16 feet. It appears always to affect the drier and more elevated tracts, where the soil is well drained.
The wood, like that of the Sugar Maple, exhibits the most beautiful variety in its texture; some of it being undulated or curled,—other portions present the numerous concentric spots which constitute the Bird's-eye Maple; and so frequent is the structure, that nearly every large tree which was cut down afforded one or other of these varieties of wood. As it,
in those remote and unsettled regions, it has only afforded a beautiful and curious material for the gun-stalk of the savage or the hunter. Like the Sugar Maple also, it affords an abundance of saccharine sap, which to an infant settlement, may one day be turned to advantage... 5
"The Touchet Horse"
By Dr. Thomas Condon
Dr. Thomas Condon was born in Ireland in 1822. Though always interested in geology, he received a theological training in New York where he had moved in early life. He came to Oregon as a home missionary in 1852. After 10 years of life in Western Oregon he moved with his family to The Dalles, collecting his first fossils in the John Day valley and spending his vacations in that rich fossil region. He was without scientific books and had no way of getting them. He succeeded in interesting Clarence King, leader of a Government geological survey in Oregon, and King in turn interested other eastern scientists. In 1870 he sent his first boxes of specimens to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1871 he took Professor Marsh and a party from Yale through his fossil fields. Scientific books found their way to his library in exchange for his information and materials, and he became a contributor to the geological literature of the country. In 1873 he joined the faculty of Pacific University at Forest Grove and in 1876 was appointed professor of geology and natural history in the University of Oregon at Eugene, where he died in February, 1907. Among his important finds was that of the little three-toed fossil horse, "the first discovery of the fossil horse contributed by the geology of the globe." He was the author of The Two Islands and What Came of Them, which has now become a rare and expensive book.
While the finest fossils of the modern type of horse have been taken from the Equus Beds in the Silver Lake region, a still more interesting discovery was the finding of the Touchet Horse ten years earlier. In the spring of 1866, a new mining interest in Eastern Oregon, Washington and Idaho resulted in an extensive demand for miners' supplies along the line of Pend d'Oreille Lake. The merchants of Walla Walla, in an effort to secure resulting trade, opened a road from Walla Walla to Palouse Landing on Snake River. The distance along this road from the crossing of the Touchet to Palouse, was thirty miles without water. To remedy this need, the road company dug for water fifteen miles beyond the crossing of the Touchet. During the same spring, and in the interest of the same trade, Mr. Moody, of the Dalles, afterward Governor Moody of Oregon, was building a small steamer on Pend d'Oreille Lake, and on his way home encountered these well diggers of the Touchet wagon road. They had dug through gravel to the depth of eighty-six feet without striking water, but Mr. Moody found them examining some fossil bones they had just found at this great depth. They, thinking they were human remains, turned to him for an explanation of the mystery and he promised to carry some of the bones to The Dalles, where he told them he had a friend who studied such things. One of these fragments was found by the writer to be a remarkably well preserved specimen of a fragment of a radius of a horse quite as large as the corresponding bone of a good sized dray horse of today. Careful inquiry brought out the information that the region from the Touchet to the Palouse was nearly level, and the whole eighty-six feet of digging was through river wash. Here, therefore, was proof that when this horse lived, a lake thirty miles across and eighty-six feet deep stretched from the Touchet to the Snake, a depression that was slowly filled up to the present level by the river flow of the region. The same winter, the writer published these facts by a lecture in Portland, and the discovery was published in the Portland Oregonion. This Touchet horse, found in 1866, was so far as is known to the writer, the first fossil horse discovered in the Pacific Northwest.