Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/124

 provisions and sledges to take on boards and other matters to arrange, which occupied the time till sunset, when we set our sails to a light southerly breeze. At no great distance we passed a conflagration of the woods on the river bank, which at one moment threw a long reflected beam of light across the water, and, the next, broke into a thousand quivering flashes on the curling eddies.

At 2 o'clock the following morning we came in view of a branch of the great Rocky Mountain chain. The day was lovely, and I fed my eyes with gazing on scenery so novel and romantic, that forcibly recalled to mind my native highlands. At noon we passed within a few miles of the mountains, where they cause the river to change its course from west to north. Their summits were still streaked with snow, but on the face of the cliffs we distinctly perceived the stratification noticed by Sir John Franklin. At midnight the men took in their oars, and we drifted down the stream.

July 1.—When our labours were resumed at 5 o'clock, we found ourselves at the foot of "the hill by the river side" ascended by that dauntless traveller, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in July 1789. A camp of Dog-ribs stood on the opposite bank: they were much alarmed, and were