Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/355

 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. 345 distance of ninety miles, which will give some idea of the rapidity of the current; forty miles lower still we en- camped at night opposite the Cinqpoil River, on the south side of the Columbia : and, soon after midday on Tuesday, arrived at the Oakanagan Establishment, where I found my old friend, Mr. Wark, with W. Conolly, Esq., M. Pam- brun, and a James Douglas, all of whom, with a party of men, were on their way from Western Caledonia to Fort Vancouver, with Mr. F. Ermetinger (brother of the gen- tleman of the same name who had accompanied me in the spring) coming from Thomson's River. The next day (Wednesday, 7th) I proceeded, with a bri- gade of six boats, towards Walla-wallah, at the junction of Lewis and Clarke's River, which I intend to make my head- quarters for six or eight weeks. Passed the Stony Islands, where I found Pentstcmon venustum (Bot. Reg. 1. 1309), and P. speciosum (Bot. Reg. t. 1270), a place in the river about half a mile long, exceedingly rugged and dangerous, at 4 o'clock, and shortly afterwards camped earlier than usual, two of our boats having been broken. This circumstance gave me some hours among the rocks on the banks of the river, which I spent to great advantage. Under some stones I discovered and killed a rattlesnake, three feet long. The thermometer had indicated 92 degrees in the shade at noon, and at night the heavens presented an entire sheet of lightning, unaccompanied either by thunder or rain. The next morning we started, as usual, very early, and breakfasted at the Priest's Rapid, on fresh salmon and buffalo tongue. Arrived at night at the Walla-wallah, where having had very little sleep since leaving Kettle Falls, I hoped to obtain some hours of repose, and accord- ingly stretched on the floor of the Indian Hall at that establishment, whence, however, I was shortly driven by the attacks of such an immense swarm of (leas as rendered repose impossible, and my attempts to procure it among