o must have come along a plain Indian path, which he
now saw following the course of the creek. This stream his guide said
led towards a large river running to the north, and was frequented by
another nation for the purpose of catching fish. He remained here two
hours, and having taken some small fish, made a dinner on them with the
addition of a few berries. From the place where he had left the party,
to the mouth of this creek, it presents one continued rapid, in which
are five shoals, neither of which could be passed with loaded canoes;
and the baggage must therefore be transported for a considerable
distance over the steep mountains, where it would be impossible to
employ horses for the relief of the men. Even the empty canoes must be
let down the rapids by means of cords, and not even in that way without
great risk both to the canoes as well as to the men. At one of these
shoals, indeed the rocks rise so perpendicularly from the water as to
leave no hope of a passage or even a portage without great labour in
removing rocks, and in some instances cutting away the earth. To
surmount these difficulties would exhaust the strength of the party, and
what is equally discouraging would waste our time and consume our
provisions, of neither of which have we much to spare. The season is now
far advanced, and the Indians tell us we shall shortly have snow: the
salmon too have so far declined that the natives themselves are
hastening from the country, and not an animal of any kind larger than a
pheasant or a squirrel, and of even these a few only will then be seen
in this part of the mountains: after which we shall be obliged to rely
on our own stock of provisions, which will not support us more than ten
days. These circumstances combine to render a passage by water
impracticable in our present situation. To descend the course of the
river on horseback is the other alternative, and scarcely a more
inviting one. The river is so deep that there are only a few places
where it can be forded, and the rocks approach so near the water as to
render it impossible to make a route along the waters' edge. In crossing
the mountains themselves we should have to encounter, besides their
steepness, one barren surface of broken masses of rock, down which in
certain seasons the torrents sweep vast quantities of stone into the
river. These rocks are of a whitish brown, and towards the base of a
gray colour, and so hard, that on striking them with s