savage tribes who hovered about them, and kept
them ever on the _qui vive_.

They soon passed from the immediate embrace of stupendous heights and
dark gorges to a land of sloping ridges, which divided the country into
a hundred luxuriant vales, composed part of woodland and part of
prairie. Through these numerous rivers and streams flowed deviously,
beautifying the landscape and enriching the land. There were also many
lakes of all sizes, and these swarmed with fish, while in some of them
were found the much-sought-after and highly esteemed beaver. Salt
springs and hot springs of various temperatures abounded here, and many
of the latter were so hot that meat could be boiled in them. Salt
existed in all directions in abundance, and of good quality. A
sulphurous spring was also discovered, bubbling out from the base of a
perpendicular rock three hundred feet high, the waters of which were
dark-blue, and tasted like gunpowder. In short, the land presented
every variety of feature calculated to charm the imagination and delight
the eye.

It was a mysterious land, too, for broad rivers burst in many places
from the earth, flowed on a short space, and then disappeared as if by
magic into the earth from which they rose. Natural bridges spanned the
torrents in many places, and some of these were so correctly formed that
it was difficult to believe they had not been built by the hand of man.
They often appeared opportunely to our trappers, and saved them the
trouble and danger of fording rivers. Frequently the whole band would
stop in silent wonder and awe as they listened to the rushing of waters
under their feet, as if another world of streams, and rapids, and
cataracts were flowing below the crust of earth on which they stood.
Some considerable streams were likewise observed to gush from the faces
of precipices, some twenty or thirty feet from their summits, while on
the top no water was to be seen.

Wild berries of all kinds were found in abundance, and wild vegetables,
besides many nutritious roots. Among other fish splendid salmon were
found in the lakes and rivers; and animal life swarmed on hill and dale.
Woods and valleys, plains, and ravines, teemed with it. On every plain
the red-deer grazed in herds by the banks of lake and stream; wherever
there were clusters of poplar and elder-trees and saplings, the beaver
was seen nibbling industriously with his sharp teeth, and committing as
much havoc in the fo