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6 Some animals and Through these swamped thickets and prairies large herds of Elk roam especially in winter but are with much difficulty pursued on account of the nature of the country. The hunter does not find sufficient inducement for following them except when a fall of snow which may not occur for years makes it easy to track them to their lairs in the daytime. The Indians formerly killed them by enclosing a large area by a circle of men and then gradually narrowing it until they drove the game into an open spot where they were easily killed. The blacktail deer also occurs rather sparingly about the borders of these prairies. On attempting to travel through the woods we find that unless by the Indian trails it is almost impossible to get along on account of the luxuriant growth of various shrubs. Many of these are evergreen and though of northern genera appear almost like tropical species, so rich & ornamental in their foliage. (Here describe [Panax hurrida) Gaultheria Shalon, Vaccinium ovalifolium, & V. ovatum) (In the Bays adjoining the mouth of the Columbia, immense numbers of water fowl are found in the migrating seasons, mostly of species also found on the Atlantic border. The peculiar northern Pacific species as well as those of the Californian coast seem to shun this region of the coast, excepting a few species which I will merely mention (Phal. Resplendous) Dionydea chlor. & [[nigripa?]] & others mentioned by Townsend in # P4.A) [[end page]] [[start page]] Plants of the Coast. 7 In the hollows between the ridge along this coast border and also in a few spots around Pugets Sound & the Straits we find sphagnons swamps having almost exactly the vegetation observed in these localities from high northern latitudes down to 42° on the eastern side. The cranberry, sparrow leaved Kalmia, Ledum palustre or Labrador tea, Yellow pond Lily and others less striking plants are common together with a Myrical or Wax myrtle of a species peculiar to this coast--The cranberry (and probably all the accompanying plants also) is to be found at least as far south as Humboldt Bay which is about the same latitude as its southern terminus on the eastern coast-- At the same time we find several plants of Southern [[genesis?]] & requiring much heat for their growth, flourishing in the sound along the [[underline]] dry [[/underline]] beach, very near those northern species-- One of the most remarkable facts noticed in the Natural History of this coast and of which instances occurs among the plants fishes and birds, is a much nearer resemblance of the species to those of Europe than of the Eastern coast of America-- So striking is this resemblance that in many cases naturalists have been unable to find specific distinctions. The first that we meet is in the Yew, long confounded by the most eminent botanists with that of Europe, while it differs entirely from that of the Eastern States--Nuttall however makes it a distinct and new species.
Transcription Notes:
Here is an article about Thomas Nuttall, an English botanist who work in the U.S. in the first half of the 1800s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nuttall