hat it would have seemed to
them a perfect paradise, but for the 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 for 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 in 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