the 22d, we began to see some pines on the ridge of the neighboring
hills; and at evening we encamped under _trees_, a thing which had not
happened to us since the 12th.

On the 23d, toward 9, A.M., we reached the trading post established by
D. Stuart, at the mouth of the river _Okenakan_. The spot appeared to us
charming, in comparison with the country through which we had journeyed
for twelve days past: the two rivers here meeting, and the immense
prairies covered with a fine verdure, strike agreeably the eye of the
observer; but there is not a tree or a shrub to diversify the scene, and
render it a little less naked and less monotonous. We found here Messrs.
J. M'Gillivray and Ross, and Mr. O. de Montigny, who had taken service
with the N.W. Company, and who charged me with a letter for his brother.

Toward midday we re-embarked, to continue our journey. After having
passed several dangerous rapids without accident, always through a
country broken by shelving rocks, diversified with hills and verdant
prairies, we arrived, on the 29th, at the portage of the _Chaudieres_
or Kettle falls. This is a fall where the water precipitates itself
over an immense rock of white marble, veined with red and green, that
traverses the bed of the river from N.W. to S.E. We effected the portage
immediately, and encamped on the edge of a charming prairie.

We found at this place some Indians who had been fasting, they assured
us, for several days. They appeared, in fact, reduced to the most
pitiable state, having nothing left but skin and bones, and scarcely
able to drag themselves along, so that not without difficulty could they
even reach the margin of the river, to get a little water to wet their
parched lips. It is a thing that often happens to these poor people,
when their chase has not been productive; their principal nourishment
consisting, in that case, of the pine moss, which they boil till it is
reduced to a sort of glue or black paste, of a sufficient consistence to
take the form of biscuit. I had the curiosity to taste this bread, and I
thought I had got in my mouth a bit of soap. Yet some of our people, who
had been reduced to eat this glue, assured me that when fresh made it
had a very good taste, seasoned with meat.[AC] We partly relieved these
wretched natives from our scanty store.

[Footnote AC: The process of boiling employed by the Indians in this
case, extracts from the moss its gelatine, which serves to supply th