JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. 217 ance. Mr. McKenzie's knowledge of the country, partic- ularly to the West of the Rocky Mountains, where he had spent many years, was particularly useful to me. I had also the pleasure to make the acquaintance of the Rev. David Jones and R. W. Cochrane, at the English Mission House, an admirable establishment, which owes much of its value to the unremitting care and zeal of these gentle- men, whose lives are devoted to the charge of the little flock over which they are called to preside. It was also a pleasure to me to become acquainted with the Rev. J. N. Provenchier, the worthy Catholic Bishop, a person of lib- eral disposition and highly cultivated mind, who lives only to be useful and good. The soil is exceedingly fer- tile, capable of bearing any kind of produce, being a deep alluvial stratum of brown loam over a gravel or limestone bottom. The settlers here live comfortably, and seem happy. The crops are liable to be attacked by grasshop- pers, but the wheat is exempted from smut and rust. Cattle thrive well, as do pigs and horses ; sheep had not then been introduced. During a month's residence here, I formed a small Herbarium of two hundred and eighty- eight species, many of them new to me, and the more in- teresting, because, if I had staid with Dr. Richardson or Mr. Drummond on the Saskatchawan, I should probably have added hardly any thing to the Flora of the country. With Mr. Hamlyn, the surgeon of the colony, I set off and had rather a tedious passage through the lake. Ar- riving at York Factory, Hudson's Bay, I was kindly re- ceived by J. G. McTavish, Esq., the Chief Factor, who had the goodness to order some travelling equipments for me, my own stock being completely worn out. Here ended my labours, and I may be allowed to. state, that when the natural difficulties of passing through a new country are taken into view, with the hostile dispo- sition of the native tribes, and the almost insuperable in-
