er
two hundred and sixty miles to Carlton House. The unsettled state of the
Indians in that neighbourhood rendering excursions over the plains very
unsafe, I determined on proceeding with the brigade as far as the Rocky
Mountains. We left Carlton House on the 1st of September, and reached
Edmonton, which is about four hundred miles distant on the 20th of the
same month. Sandy plains extend without material alteration the whole
way, and there is, consequently, little variety in the vegetation;
indeed, I did not find a single plant that I had not seen within ten
miles of Carlton House, although I had an opportunity of examining the
country carefully, having performed the greater part of the journey on
foot. After a halt of two days at Edmonton, we continued our route one
hundred miles farther to Fort Assinaboyn on the Red Deer River, one of
the branches of the Athapescow. This part of the journey was performed
with horses through a swampy and thickly wooded country, and the path
was so bad, that it was necessary to reduce the luggage as much as
possible. I therefore took with me only one bale of paper for drying
plants, a few shirts, and a blanket; Mr. M'Millan, one of the Company's
chief traders, who had charge of the brigade, kindly undertaking to
forward the rest of my baggage in the ensuing spring. [Sidenote:
October, 2d.] We left Fort Assinaboyn to proceed up the Red Deer River
to the Mountains, on the 2d of October; but the Canoe appointed for this
service being very much lumbered, it was necessary that some of the
party should travel by land, and of that number, I volunteered to be
one. A heavy fall of snow, on the third day after setting out, rendered
the march very fatiguing, and the country being thickly wooded and very
swampy, our horses were rendered useless before we had travelled half
the distance."

"We reached the mountains on the 14th, and I continued to accompany the
brigade, for fifty miles of the Portage-road, to the Columbia, when we
met a hunter whom Mr. M'Millan hired to supply me with food during the
winter. The same gentleman having furnished me with horses and a man to
take care of them, I set out with the hunter and his family towards the
Smoking River, one of the eastern branches of the Peace River, on which
we intended to winter. [Sidenote: December.] My guide, however, loitered
so much on the way, that the snow became too deep to admit of our
proceeding to our destination, and we were under t