Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/369

 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. 359 McDonald's men, named Coq de Lard, and with him to start on an exploring trip in the direction of the said mountains. My companion and friend (guide he could not be called, as he as equally a stranger to this country as myself,) traveled two days, when we reached the first ridge of hills. Here we parted, I leaving him to take care of the horses, and proceeding alone to the summit, whence I found nothing different, as to vegetation, from what I had seen before, but was much struck with a re- markable spring that rises on the summit, from a circular hollow in the earth, eleven feet in diameter; the water springs up to from nine inches to three feet and a half above the surface, gushing up and falling in sudden jets ; thence it flows in a stream down the mountain fifteen feet broad and two and a half feet deep, running with great rapidity, with a descent of a foot and a half in ten, and finally disappears in a small marsh. I could find no bot- tom to the spring at a depth of sixty feet. Surrounding this spring, which I named Munro's Fountain, is a beau- tiful thicket of a species of Ribes, growing twelve to fif- teen feet high, and bearing fine fruit, much like gooseber- ries, as large as a musket-ball, and of delicate and superior flavour. I hope it may be allowed to bear the specific name of R. Munroi (Dot. Heg. 1. 1300). The Pa-nia (P. Brownii), mentioned before, with Abronia vespertina, and a fine Xylosteum, and Ribes viscosifwimum, also grew here. On joining my guide we examined the state of our larder, and finding that provisions were low, and our appetites keen, we determined to regain our friends' camp, and traveling all night, arrived there at sunrise. Hardly, however, had I lain down to sleep, than I was rous.ed by the call to arms, which, to a Man of Grass and of Peace, is far from welcome. A misunderstanding having arisen between our interpreter and one of the Indian chiefs, the latter accused the former of not translating correctly, and words failing to express