Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/231

225 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO N. W. AMERICA. 225 speaking, there is scarcely any liability of derangement, an object of most desirable attainment in these instruments. I shall combine ob- servations accurately made with the hygrometer on different altitudes on the mountains and in different latitudes, .which will, I trust, fur- nish you with information that can be confidently relied upon, and which will effect much in illustrating the Geography of Plants. I shall take great care of Fuci. You have heard from Dr. Mertens, 3 who doubtless told you of his splendid voyage. He possesses the gigantic seaweed of which I spoke, and has named it Fucus Lutkeanus, after the captain of the vessel. I spent ten days with Captain Lutke here, and was highly pleased with him: he gave me letters to Baron Wrangell, Governor of the Russian Colonies in America, and of the Aleutian Isles, as also circulars to Siberia. The Baron is a man of vast information, and joins heart and hand with all those who have scientific views. I spent a few days with Dr. Mertens, and would gladly have accompanied him to Sheerness to see his drawings, had I the time to spare. He tells me that he found a second species of shrubby Pyrola, a more robust plant than yours. 4 The expedition did not touch lower down on the coast than Norfolk Sound, and I should conceive that most of their plants (indeed Dr. Mertens said so, for I showed him all mine) are very different from those collected either by Capt. Beechey's party or myself. Did you hear of the total wreck of the Hudson's Bay Company's ship on the sand-bar at the entrance of the Columbia River, with the loss of every individual on board, forty- six in number, on the llth of March last? It was the vessel in which Dr. Scouler and I went out in 1824, when the late captain was First- Mate. It is stated that those who escaped from the wreck were de- stroyed by my old friends, the Chenooks. This may be true, though I confess I entertain some doubts, for I have lived among those people unmolested for weeks and months. The temptation, however, of ob- taining the wreck may have overcome their better (if indeed they pos- sess any) feelings. Though this is far from agreeable news, and though the name of my new captain (Grave) may sound ominous, I shall yet venture among these tribes once again. I doubt not if 'I can do as much as most people, and perhaps more than some who make a parade about it. I shall write every day and write every thing, so that my drivelling will return home, though perhaps I may not. "I shall feel the greatest pleasure in communicating with Dr. Richardson; it will be quite a comfort to place any of my discoveries in the hands of one who will give them so creditably to the world. 3 The son of Prof. Mertens of Bremen, who accompanied Capt. Lutke, as Naturalist, in the last Russian voyage of discovery. His account of Sitka is given at vol. 3, p. 12, of the "Botanical Miscellany." 4 It proves to be the same plant, a new genus, my Tolmicea occidentalis (Fl. Bor. Am. v. 2, p. 45,) but had been, a little time previously, published by M. Bongard, under the name of Cladothamnus pyrolijlorus.