Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/268

258 had consumed all the berries I had collected, and Mr. Mackenzie, who accompanied me, suffered severely from eating the roots of a species of Narthecium. Fortunately we found at the Cowalidsk a small boat which Schachanaway, the chief had borrowed from the establishment a few days before; and he also gave us some roots, dried salmon, and a goose (Anas Canadensis.) The following day we descended the river to the Columbia, and on the 15th of November landed at Fort Vancouver. Seeds of Helonias tenax, Rubus spectabilis (Bot. Reg. t. 1424), were the only things I saved in this unfortunate journey.

My return up the Columbia was effected by means of my cloak and blanket, which I used as sails. It was midnight of the 15th when I reached Fort Vancouver, after an absence of twenty-five days, during which I experienced more fatigue and gleaned less than in any trip I ever made in this country.

From this period, the middle of November, to the end of December, my infirm state of health, and the prevalence of the rainy season entirely precluded any thought of Botany. At midday of the 18th, the annual express, consisting of two boats and forty men, arrived at Fort Vancouver, from Hudson's Bay, whence they had started on the 21st of July. At a distance of several miles we had descried them, rapidly descending the stream, and as in this remote country, it is only once a year that the post, if I may so call it, arrives from England, we eagerly hurried to welcome our guests, each congratulating himself on the prospect of receiving letters from home. I, for one, was heavily disappointed; to my great regret, the party informed me that there was no parcel, letter, nor article of any kind for me, and though this was accounted for by the circumstance that they had quitted Hudson's Bay before the arrival of the ship which sailed for that port from England in the month of May, still it was tantalizing to reflect that whatever might have been sent to me by that vessel, must now lie on the other side of the great Continent of America until November of next year. Mr. McLeod. the gentleman in charge of this expedition, informed me that he had met