Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/363

 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. 353 the mountains, and wholly disappears on the plains below. A lovely Lupine (L. Sabini, Bot. Reg. t. 1485), with large spikes, twelve to eighteen inches long, of yellow flowers, covering whole tracts of the country for miles, and re- minding me of the "bonny broom," that enlivens the moors of my native land, gave me much pleasure. The specimens in my collection will show how desirable an acquisition this would be to our gardens. The crevices of the rocks were adorned in many places with a white- flowered Pedicularis, and a new Draba, while several species of Pentatemon fringed the mountain rivulets, and a yellow Ericgonum (E. sphtcrocephalum) sprang up in the crevices of granite rocks. Of Lupinaster macrocephalus (Trifolium megacephalum) (Pursh), which never grows be- low three thousand feet on the mountains, I am most anxious to obtain seeds ; also of Trifolium altissimum (Hook. Fl. Bor. Am., v. 1. t. 48.) Monday, 26t1i. Being more and more anxious of mak- ing a second journey to the same mountains, I sent again to my guide, and bade him prepare to accompany me ; on which he instantly began to plead that he had not re- covered from the fatigue of his former excursion, and finally refused to go. Perceiving that this statement was by no means true, at least to the extent that he wanted to make me believe, I was on the point of trying the effect of a little personal chastisement, in order to teach him, that since I was paying for his services I had a right to require them, when he made his escape without loss of time. I afterwards learned that the "Young Wasp," as the interpreter's son was called, had told the poor igno- rant being that I was a great Medicine J/an, which, among these poor people, is considered equivalent to possessing necromantic power, and having intercourse with evil spirits. Also, that if he accompanied me, and acted so as, in any way, to incur my displeasure, I should trans-