'The Collector': David Douglas, a great NW botanist

On April 27, 1827, botanist David Douglas decided to tally the miles he had traveled during the previous two years of wandering the Pacific Northwest. His total was 7,032, either by foot, by boat or by horse. In that time, he collected hundreds of species of plants and thousands of specimens, many new to science. (Other botanists once complained that "he carried off root and branch from the only known localities" where certain rare plants grew.)

Douglas also shot and collected dozens of bird and mammal species. He even ate a few of the specimens, noting, for example, that roasted bald eagle was very good eating. The scientific names of more than 80 plant and animal species now honor him, and this doesn't include the numerous common eponymous names, such as Douglas fir. Few botanists worldwide, and none in western North America, have had as great an impact as David Douglas.

Fortunately, Douglas kept thorough notes and journals on his expeditions, which has allowed historian Jack Nisbet to write his new book, "The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest" (Sasquatch Books, 290 pp., $23.95). As Nisbet did in his previous books about natural history and history — "Sources of the River" and "Visible Bones" — he has seamlessly woven journal entries, historical documents and modern reporting to re-create the life of one of the greatest explorers of our region.

Born to a stonemason in Scotland in 1799, Douglas' penchant for all things natural began in his youth, when he preferred collecting plants and birds' nests to sitting in a classroom. He began working summers for the gardener at the local manor when he was 11 and stayed for several years before moving to Glasgow in 1820, where he came under the influence of William Jackson Hooker, one of England's foremost botanists. Three years later, Hooker recommended his protégé when the London Horticultural Society sought a collector to go to Chile. Douglas got the job, but politics forced him to go to America. He collected for several months, all on the East Coast.

Six months after his return, he departed again, courtesy of the Hudson's Bay Co., to collect in the Pacific Northwest. Befriending native peoples, fur trappers, Hudson's Bay employees and fellow naturalists, Douglas began to collect every plant and animal he could. He also traded for specimens, watched the natives to see what and how they used plants, and learned to speak the local lingua franca.

Douglas was constantly busy; he traveled in all weather and often had to stop to dry and redry his specimens. Because of his desire for seeds, he had to return to collect plants at different times of the year. Occasionally he had to be rather resourceful, such as shooting cones out of trees with his musket. Luckily he had few injuries, and for two years he botanized the Northwest like no other person before or since.

Douglas' first Northwest expedition makes up the bulk of Nisbet's book. Douglas returned to the Northwest in 1829, but those journals were lost. He spent nearly a year botanizing in California, explored up the Fraser River, and eventually made it to Hawaii in 1834, where he died under mysterious circumstances.

Nisbet has done a first-rate job of re-creating not only Douglas' life and expeditions but also his passion for knowledge, exploration and discovery. Although we in the modern world cannot duplicate Douglas' sense of discovery of a new world, we can at least benefit from Douglas' work. And reading Jack Nisbet's life of Douglas makes those discoveries that much more fascinating.

Seattle author David B. Williams' most recent book is "Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology" (Walker & Co.).