Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/346

 tiful here, growing with a white variety: when these pretty flowers are seen together, they lend a grace to the scanty herbage of American spring that agreeably calls to mind "the wee crimson-tipped flower" and "the faint primrose-beds" of my native land.

From Sunday, the 15th, to Wednesday, the 19th, I continued making several trips in the country contiguous to the Junction of the Spokan River, and this more for the sake of viewing the general aspect of the soil, and estimating its future productions, than for any object of natural history that I might now pick up, the season being too early in spring to afford much.

Wednesday, the 19th—On this day, at noon, I accompanied Mr. Dease, who with two boats and a party of fourteen men, was proceeding up the river to a new settlement, called Fort Colville, near the Kettle Falls, ninety miles further on. The whole distance is mountainous and rugged, becoming increasingly so as we approach the territory of the Rocky Mountains. Many kinds of Pine are seen on the banks, three species particularly—P. resinosa, a Pinus, very similar to P. taxifolia of the coast, and P. Larix, the latter more numerous than the others, and attaining a great size. I measured some, thirty feet in circumference; and several which had been leveled to the ground by the late storms, were one hundred and forty-five feet long, with wood perfectly clean and strong. A thick sward of grass covered the ground, interspersed with shrubs which at this early season it was impossible to determine. The hills are still partially clothed with snow, and while the days are warm, the cold is severe at night. The greatest elevation of the thermometer was 65 degrees, and its minimum 28 degrees, during the twenty-four hours; a striking difference! During this, voyage we met with several parts of the river, where the rapids obliged us to make long and difficult portages, sometimes three in a day. We generally started