Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/42

32 Heaven, we continued on 'till 6 P. M. when we put up with no other Accident, than having wet almost the whole of the Goods, @ the Men @ Horses very much fatigued. Here where the Valley is wide the State @ Foliage of the Herbs @ Trees, shewed Summer to have been here, at least a full fortnight or more. June 28 by 6¼ A. M. set off @ directly crossed the River, we now proceeded a short way, 'till the Country being impassable with Woods @ rocky Land, all Hands set to Work to clear a Road for abt. 1¼ M. @ by Noon got all our Horses &c this far, we now came to a low flat Points which havg Grass @ our Horses much fatigued, we stopped to refresh them, four Men now went off Axe in hand to clear away the Wood, @ by 4½ P. M. they returned, when heavy Rain coming on we camped for the Night. Here is a hard Day's Work, at the end of which we found ourselves only abt. 1¾ Miles from whence we had set out this Morng. June 29th by 5¼ A. M. we set off, havg. gone in 3 dy. 2½ Miles, we came (to a) Brook, whose descent from the Mountains was so great, that notwithstanding it had not more than from 3 to 3½ ft. water, yet no loaded Horse could cross it without extreme Danger; we were obliged to throw a Bridge of very large Trees across it, @ at last succeeded; havg. carried all the Goods, Saddles &c. across/we obliged the Horses to cross @ altho' they were quite light, yet the Current swept them under for the distance of a few Feet. havg. reloaded our Horses, we went on in an old Kootanae Road, tolerable good 'till 11 A. M., when we stopped to clear the Path up a long high Bank; we then went over much fallen wood, the Country full of fine Timber @ great quantity of Herbage. At 6 P. M. we descended a Hill, dangerous to Horses, at the foot of which we camped. Killed a Red Deer, which made a most acceptable Meal. Animals are very, very scarce. Our route thro' the Woods has always been near the River Banks, the Stream from it's great Descent, a Torrent that seemingly nothing can resist, always foaming with it's Velocity against the inequalities