Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/187

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181
F. G. Young.
181

JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO N. W. AMERICA. 181 29th. This morning we were becalmed off Dundass Island, on which we landed about 6 A. M. On landing we discovered many tracks of Indians, & several articles be- longing to their fishing apparatus; we saw, however, no natives. That part of the island we were on was sur- rounded by steap rocks, & the landing was rather diffi- cult. The whole island appeared to be encircled by a zone of algse. Among the rocks were many curious ma- rine animals ; the shells belonged to the genera Tuba Pa- tella & Mytillus [?]. The most interesting animal here belonged to the articulata ; it was a species of Monoculus. Among the Radiata we found Actinea, Asterise & Alcyonia. Our limited time did not allow us to make an extensive collection of plants, but those we found were very inter- esting. On the rocks near the coast we found plenty of Saxifraga & Potentilla, with abundance of Xanthium mi- mosim. After we got on board the vessel a breeze sprang up & we made for Portland Canal. The entrance into the above named canal & Observatory Inlet is about 3 miles broad, & is accordingly deap, as we could find no bottom with 120 fathoms of line. During our progress a canoe put of[f] to us from the shore, but as the wind was favourable it would have been a loss of time to have waited for them. When they saw it was impossible to overtake us, they tes- tified their displeasure in angry menaces. We saw sev- eral people viewing us from the shore ; one of them was armed with a fowling piece, the others appeared to be unarmed. On the approach of night we had much diffi- culty in finding a convenient anchoring place on account of the great depth of water close to the shore. After 3 hours hard labour, & some anxiety, we found a small cove about 4 miles below Point Ramsden, where we anchored in 30 fathoms of water & about 160 feet from the shore.