Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/193

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187
F. G. Young.
187

JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO N. W. AMERICA. 187 ner to the limbs of the fork. This hook would be too weak to hold so strong a fish if they were not ready to transfix him with their spears as he came to the surface of the water. 8th. To-day we got a few miles further down the inlet, but in the evening we were obliged to anchor in a very dis- agre[e]able situation. We were less than a cable's length from the shore & were obliged to make the vessel fast by a rope fixed to a tree. .9th. In the morning it began to blow hard & we were obliged to quit our uncomfortable situation and run back to the bay we had left on the 7th. 12th. We still remain in our old situation, the wind unfavorable & the rain incessant. Tired of inaction, & as the Indians had left us, I ventured ashore to collect a few specimens, & penetrated through the woods till we came to a small bay formed by a sudden turn the land takes to the eastward. The excursion afforded some interesting plants whose genera I was unacquainted with ; but my partiality for acotyledonous plants was amply gratified in the abundance of Lichens, Musci, & Jungermannise this place afforded ;& all of them in a state of fruit. The rocks even to high-water mark were covered by Gyro- phora[t], Conomyes & Peltidise[^]. The beauty & variety of the species, & the narrow space in which they are con- densed, enabled us to collect 40 specimens in the course of an hour, & convinced me that this bay was one of the most favoured climes for cryptogamous vegetation. This richness will cause the more surprise when it is stated that the principal rock was granite of a very undecom- posed nature, with a few masses of clay slate. Of mud slate I could detect no traces. On our return we observed the remains of an Indian lodge. It appeared to have been merely a temporary residence, as it consisted only of a few poles supporting a