Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/84

78 serve either for riding or carrying my baggage, as may be required.

20th, Wednesday.—Left Fort Vancouver in company with Mr. Manson, and a party of twelve men, in a boat containing hunting implements, and arrived on the third day (Friday, the 22d,) at Mr. McLeod's encampment.

23d to 27th.—Little progress made, because of our horses having strayed to considerable distances; but I spent my time in botanizing, and found two specimens of Rosa, a new Ribes, and some other things. We took our course due West, towards the coast, passing over a pleasant undulating country, with rich soil, and beautiful solitary oaks and pines scattered here and there. The ground, however, being burned up; not a single blade of grass, except on the margins of rivulets, is to be seen.

28th.—Mr. McLeod joined us here, and brought an Indian guide from the coast, South of the country inhabited by the Killeemucks. Our hunters were very unfortunate in the chase, and, though nine deer were seen in one groupe, the animals were so shy, and kept so close in the thicket, that no fresh meat could be procured. The next day (Thursday) one was killed by a hunter with his rifle, two hundred yards distant. The ball entered the left shoulder and passed through the neck on the opposite side, yet the animal ran nearly a quarter of a mile before she fell.

Proceeded in the same kind of way, seeing little worthy of note for two or three days. Deer were scarce, and the custom of burning the soil is highly unfavourable to botanizing. This plan prevails every where, though the natives vary in their accounts of the reason for which it is done, some saying that it is in order to compel the deer to feed in the unburnt spots, where they are easily detected and killed; others, that the object is, to enable