Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/258

248 2952) Carex Menziesii, Juncus Menziesii and globosus, Vaccinium ovatum, parvifolium (Hook Fl. Bor. Am. v. 1. t. 128), and ovalifolium (Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. v. 1. t. 127). I also obtained seeds of the beautiful Spiraea ariaefolia (Bot Reg. t. 1367), of Gaultheria Shallon, Ribes sanguinem, Berberis, and other valuable and interesting plants.

Before taking leave of my Indian friends, I purchased several articles of wearing apparel, things used in their domestic economy, etc., for which I paid in trinkets and tobacco. I arrived at Fort Vancouver again on the 5th of August, and employed myself until the 18th in drying the specimens I had collected, and making short journeys in quest of seeds and other plants; my labours being materially retarded by the rainy weather. As there were no houses yet built on this new station, I first occupied a tent which was kindly offered me, and then removed to a lodge of deer skin, which soon, however, became too small for me in consequence of the augmentation of my collections, and where also I found some difficulty in drying my plants and seeds. A hut constructed of the bark of Thuja occidentalis was my next habitation, and there I shall probably take up my winter quarters. I have only been in a house three nights since my arrival in Northwest America, and these were the first after my debarkation. On my journeys I occupy a tent wherever it is practicable to carry one; which, however, is not often, so that a canoe turned upside down is my occasional shelter; but more frequently I lie under the boughs of a pine tree, without anything further. In England, people shiver at the idea of sleeping with a window open; here each person takes his blanket and stretches himself, with all possible complacency on the sand, or under a bush, as may happen, just as if he were going to bed. I must confess that although I always stood this bivouacking remarkably well, and experienced no bad effects from it, I at first regarded it with a sort of dread, but now habit has rendered the practice so comfortable to me, that I look upon anything more as mere superfluity.