er range for cattle.

We were now approaching a portion of the river where the difficulties
of getting on were great. The men had to cope with the swift current,
bordered by a series of steep gumbo slides, where the tracking was
hazardous; where great trees slanted over the water, tottering to
their fall, or deep pits and fissures gaped in the festering clay,
into which the men often plunged to their arm-pits. It was horrible
to look upon. The chain-gang, the galley-slaves, how often the idea
of them was recalled by that horrid pull! Yet onward they went,
with teeth set and hands bruised by the rope, surmounting difficulty
after difficulty with the pith of lions.

At last a better region was reached, with occasionally a better
path. Here the destruction by fire had been stayed, the country
improved, and the forest outlines became bold and noble. Hour by
hour we crept along a like succession of majestic bends of the
river, not yet flushed by the summer freshet, but flowing with
superb volume and force. Fully ten miles were made that day,
the men tracking like Trojans through water and over difficult
ground, but fortunately free from mosquitoes, the constant head
winds keeping these effectually down. The cool weather in like
manner kept the water down, for it is in this month that the
freshet from the Rocky Mountains generally begins, filling the
channel bank-high, submerging the tracking paths, and bearing
upon its foaming surface such a mass of uprooted trees and river
trash that it is almost impossible to make head against it.

The next morning opened dry and pleasant, but with a milky and
foreboding sky. Again the boats were in motion, passing the
Pusquatenao, or Naked Hill, beyond which is the Echo Lake--Katoo
Sakaigon--where a good many Indians lived, having a pack-trail
thereto from the river.

The afternoon proved to be hot, the clouds cumulose against a
clear, blue sky, with occasional sun-showers. The tracking became
better for a time, the lofty benches decreasing in height as we
ascended. Innumerable ice-cold creeks poured in from the forest,
all of a reddish-yellow cast, and the frequent marks on trees,
informing passing hunters of the success of their friends, and
the number of stages along the shore for drying meat, indicated
a fine moose country.

The next day was treaty day, and we were still a long way from
the treaty post. The Police, not yet hardened to the work, felt
fagged, but would not own u