try, the poplar and aspen tree
are to be found, together with a species of birch, of whose bark
canoes are built; but there is neither hard wood nor cedar.

Such parts of the district as are not in the immediate vicinity of the
regions of eternal snow, yield a variety of wild fruit, grateful to
the palate, wholesome, and nutritious. Of these, the Indian pear is
the most abundant, and most sought after, both by natives and whites;
when fully ripe, it is of a black colour, with somewhat of a reddish
tinge, pear-shaped, and very sweet to the taste. The natives dry them
in the sun, and afterwards bake them into cakes, which are said to be
delicious; for my own part, having seen the process of manufacturing
them, I could not overcome my prejudices so far as to partake of a
delicacy in whose composition filth formed so considerable an
ingredient. When dried, the cakes are placed in wooden vessels to
receive the juice of green fruit, which is expressed by placing
weights upon it, in wooden troughs, from which spouts of bark draw off
the liquid into the vessels containing the dry fruit; this being
thoroughly saturated, is again bruised with the unclean hand, then
re-formed into cakes, and dried again; and these processes are
repeated alternately, until the cakes suit the taste of the maker.
Blue berries are plentiful in some parts of the district; there is a
peculiar variety of them, which I preferred to any fruit I ever
tasted; it is about the size of a musket-ball, of a purple colour,
translucid, and in its taste sweet and acid are deliciously blended.

The district is still rich in fur-bearing animals, especially beavers
and martens, which are likely to continue numerous for many years to
come, as they find a safe retreat among the fastnesses of the Rocky
Mountains, where they multiply undisturbed. This is the great beaver
nursery, which continues to replace the numbers destroyed in the more
exposed situations; there is, nevertheless, a sensible decrease in the
returns of the fur since the introduction of steel traps among the
natives: there are also otters, musk-rats, minxes, and lynxes. Of the
larger quadrupeds bears only are numerous, and in all their varieties,
grizzled, black, brown, and chocolate: numbers of them are taken by
the natives in wooden traps. A chance moose or reindeer is sometimes
found. The mountain sheep generally keeps aloft in the most
inaccessible parts of the mountains, and is seldom "bagged" by a