Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/135

 air of our tormentors. We saw, in the course of the morning, two reindeer, and a female moose followed by her fawns, but very few wild fowl. Several fine views of the Rocky Mountains opened as we passed down the vdnding western channel. Landing in the evening on an islet in an expansion of the stream, we found a câche of dried fish, wooden sledges shod with bone, reindeer horns, and other articles left by the Esquimaux. We disturbed nothing, but appended to the stage a few trinkets, with a hieroglyphical letter carved on bark, intimating that the donors were white men, in two boats, on their way to the western sea. After supping we resumed our nocturnal route.

On the morning of Sunday the 9th, a strong southerly wind very opportunely arose, before which we made rapid progress, keeping always to the extreme left, in a narrow serpentine channel washing the foot of the mountains. About 8, on turning a sharp point, we came suddenly upon an Esquimaux oomiak, containing four women and a couple of dogs. The ladies, throwing off their coverings, leaped ashore, and fled through the willows with the utmost precipitation. We did not land, but passed on under full sail. Finding that there was still no appearance of the sea, we concluded from this