Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/123

 was luxuriant, and, viewed in that glowing light, the scenery produced a very imposing effect. A fine breeze bore us swiftly down the stream, and, crossing the mouth of the picturesque River of the Mountains, we reached Fort Simpson.

Our hunters cast up in the forenoon of the 29th. They had stove one of their canoes, had narrowly escaped foundering in the attempt to follow us near the shore in the boisterous weather of the 26th, and were much fatigued. The fields here looked well, but the young barley had a troublesome enemy in the passenger pigeons. Except one in Salt River, we saw none of these graceful birds elsewhere throughout our journey. The wild rose and a variety of flowers ornamented the woods. From two meridional observations, the latitude of this establishment is 61° 51′ 25″ N.; the variation of the compass 37° 10′ E.; and, at a subsequent period, the longitude, 121° 25′ 15″ W. was obtained from a number of lunar distances. The latitude deduced by Sir John Franklin, in 1825, from the dead reckoning, was 62° 11′, being nearly twenty miles too far to the north; an error easily accounted for by the difficulty of making a just allowance for the strength of an unequal current. The temperature in the shade at noon was 62°. We had some blacksmith-work to get executed,