Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/345

 W. Dease, Esq., who, with fourteen men, was on his way to the Kettle Falls, ninety miles higher up the Columbia, the furthest of the three points, which I designed to make my headquarters for the summer and autumn. The great kindness and attention this gentleman showed me contributed no little to my comfort. He is brother to the person of the same name who is now accompanying Captain Franklin on his second Arctic land expedition.

This part of the Columbia is by far the most beautiful and varied I have yet seen; the plains are extensive, but studded with Pine trees, like an English lawn, with rising bluffs or little eminences clothed with small brushwood and rugged rocks sprinkled with Ferns, Mosses, and Lichens.

Two or three days were here devoted to drying my paper, which had got wet, arranging my plants, and writing to Mr. Sabine, my brother, and Mr. Munro, which notes I delivered to Mr. McLeod, who starts to-morrow, the 14th, for his long trip to Hudson Bay, and has most kindly engaged to convey my tin box of seeds and a few other articles which we will consign to Mr. McTavish. I also met Mr. John Wark here, from whom I received much attention last year. In a few days I intend proceeding to the Kettle Falls, where I shall make such a stay and such excursions as best promise to accomplish the objects of my employers.

Among the most interesting plants which I have just gathered, is one of a genus perfectly distinct from Lilium (though apparently the L. pudicum of Pursh), as its style is invariably three-cleft. It is abundant in light dry soil everywhere above the Falls. I shall try to preserve its bulbs, as it is highly ornamental. The natives eat the roots, both raw and roasted on the embers, and collect in July a large store of them, which they dry in the sun, and lay by for winter use. A lovely Dodecatheon is also plen-