Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/352

 342 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. t. 1786), and Rubus Nutkanus (Dot. Reg. t. 1386, Bot. Mag. t. 3453). Saturday, the 13th. As I thought of bending my steps again toward the Columbia, Mr. Finlay offered that one of his sons should escort me, to which I agreed. Before quitting him, I made some inquiry about a sort of sheep found in this neighborhood, about the size of that de- scribed by Lewis and Clarke, but, instead of wool, having short, thick, coarse hair, of a brownish-grey color, whence its name of Mouton Gris, as it is called by the voyageurs, is derived. The horns of the male, weighing sometimes eighteen to twenty-four pounds, are dingy white, and form a sort of volute, those of the female bend back, curving outwards at the point, and are from ten inches to a foot long. The flesh is fine, equal to that of the domestic sheep. It inhabits the lofty mountains, and is seldom seen in any numbers except on those whose summits are covered with perpetual snow. Mr. Finlay gave me hopes that when he visited the high mountains farther up the country in au- tumn, he might be able, notwithstanding the shyness of these animals, and the inaccessible places to which they generally betake themselves when disturbed, to procure me a specimen of this highly interesting creature. To Mr. Finlay's sons I offered a small compensation if they would preserve for me the skins of different animals, showing them at the same time how this should be done. On my way back from Spokan River to the Columbia, I was obliged to take the same way of crossing the Bar- ri&re River as I had done when coming, and again suffered a good deal from the wetness of my clothes, as I had no change whatever with me. I however added Ribes viscosissimum of Pursh (Flora Boreali- Americana, tab. 76) to my collection, which pleased me much, and on the whole felt myself well rewarded for the toils of my excur- sion, by the many new plants I had gained, and by the