ory birds.

[Sidenote: May, 20th.] The only symptoms of reviving vegetation at this
period, were a few anemones in flower, and the bursting of some catkins
of willows; but we learned by an arrival of a boat from the Peace River
that, even so early as the 14th, the trees were in full foliage at not
more than a day's journey from the lake. The barley was sown at Fort
Chipewyan on the 15th May, potatoes on the 21st, and the garden seeds on
the 22d, which were expected to be ready for use by the close of the
following September. As an experiment, whether the barley would yield a
better crop by remaining in the ground through the winter, some had been
sown in the preceding autumn, but only a few of the plants appeared at
the close of this month, and the crop did not promise favourably.

Some canoes having arrived on the 26th of May with the furs from Slave
Lake, the last of the Company's brigade of boats was despatched to York
Factory. Augustus, who was desirous of seeing Dr. Richardson again
before his departure from the country, and two other men of the
Expedition, embarked in them. I embarked on the 31st May in the
Company's light canoe with Mr. Stewart and Mr. M'Vicar, having
previously made the necessary arrangements for the passage of Captain
Back and his party. We reached Cumberland House on the 18th June, where
I had the happiness of meeting Dr. Richardson after a separation of
eleven months. I learned from him that during our absence in the north,
Mr. Drummond the Assistant Botanist had been indefatigable in collecting
specimens of Natural History, having been sent for that purpose to the
Rocky Mountains at the head of the Athabasca River; in the course of
which service, he had been exposed to very great privations. To his
perseverance and industry, science is indebted for the knowledge of
several new and many rare quadrupeds, birds, and plants. That the reader
may form some notion of the labour he sustained, and the zeal he
displayed in making his very valuable and highly interesting
collections, and to point out to the naturalist, the districts from
whence they were brought, I subjoin his brief account of his journey in
his own words.

[Sidenote: 1825, June.] "I remained at Cumberland House about six weeks
after the departure of Captain Back and Mr. Kendall, in June, 1825, when
the Company's boats with the brigade of traders for the Columbia,
arriving from York Factory, I accompanied them up the Saskatchawan Riv