June" fufficiently decompofed to produce any thing but a variety o f coarfe
—v— mofles, a fhort fpiry grafs, a few cranberry, and fome other plants of a
dwarfilh Hunted growth; fome of thefe moralfes compofe the fides of
the hills, and although thefe had confiderable inclination, yet they had
the property of retaining the water to a very deceitful and unpleafant
degree; exhibiting an apparently dry, verdant furface, which when
walked upon funk to nearly half leg deep in water. The foil from
whence the forelts have fprung is o f limilar materials, and not reduced
to a more perfeft mould; but this generally covers a rocky foundation,
from whence pine trees feem to derive great nourilhment, as very large
ones had frequently been found growing from out of the naked rock.
Thole about this harbour did not grow with the fame luxuriance as at the
place from whence our fore-yard had been procured, about 5 leagues to
the fouth-weft, but compofed rather a dwarfilh foreft; which, although
producing many of the common berry bulhes, cannot be confidered as
much interrupted with underwood. The Ihores are in general low* and as
has been already obferved, very fwampy in many places, on which the fea
appears to be making more rapid incroachments than I ever before faw,
or heard of. Many trees had been cut down fince thefe regions had been
firfl vifited by Europeans; this was evident by the vifible effe&s of the axe
and law ; which we concluded had been produced whilft Melfrs. Portlock
and Dixon were here, feven years before our arrival; as the flumps of the
trees were ftill remaining on the earth where they had originally grown, but
were now many feet below the high water mark, even of neap tides. A
narrow low projecting point of land behind which we rode, had not long
. fince afforded fupport to fome of the largeft pine trees in the neighbourhood,
but it was now overflowed by every tide; and excepting two of the
trees which ftill put forth a few leaves, the whole were reduced to naked,
dead white flumps, by the incroachment of the lea water to their roots ;
and fome flumps o f trees, with their roots ftill faft in the ground, were
alfo found in no very advanced ftate of decay nearly as low down as the
low water of fpring tides.
The only filh we obtained in this port was a few indifferent crabs
from the Ihores. About the outlkirts of the woods we procured-a little
wild
wild celery, and the fpruce beer that was here brewed far exceeded in
excellence any we had before made upon the coaft. Our fportfmen procured
a few geefe, ducks, goofanders, and other aquatic, birds, which
proved very acceptable; to thefe were added an old black bear, but although
we were living on falted provifions, its flelh did not feem to be
much relilhed.
Our fituation did not permit us to become much acquainted with
the native inhabitants of the country ; for excepting thofe who had vifited
us near the fouth point of Montagu llland, none o f them approached
the Ihip ; nor did Mr. Whidbey, although he coafted near
four hundred and twenty miles of the Ihores of the peninfula and. continent,
meet with more than thirteen of the Indians; he did not fee any of
their habitations, nor any of thofe deferted villages that we had been accuf-
tomed to find in every other part of the coaft. From whence it is evident,
that the population of this large found is very inconfiderable when compared
with its extent; for if we admit, that all thofe feen by both the fur-
veying parties, and the four that vifited the Ihip, were all different per-
fons, the total number of people amounted only to two hundred and
eighty-one o f all deferiptions, exclufive of the few we faw amongft the
Ruffians at port Etches, who moft probably belonged to the village that
Mr.Johnftone had vifited. This number appears to be infinitely fhort of the
computation made by Mr. Meares and other vifitors; and hence it might
poflibly be inferred, .that fince the period of their vilits the number of the
inhabitants had greatly diminifhed, and that the caufe of this depopulation
was to be aferibed to the Ruffian progrefs ; an inference which would
derive fome fupport from the circumftance of our having found feveral
old graves, but only one that appeared to have been recently, con-
ftru&ed. This idea however may be eafily combated, as I am well
perfuaded that the prefent ftate of population in thefe regions differs
but little from what had been found to be the cafe on their being firft
difeovered by Captain Cook, who fpent eight days in and pafling through
this found; during which time the number o f the inhabitants who vifited
the veffels under his command, did not exceed one hundred different per-
fons o f all ages,' and of both fexes. Since thofe were moft probably the firft
European