Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/215

209 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. 209 due east for four miles, and in this short distance we made seven fordings more. We did not require snow-shoes here, as there was a fine hard solid crust, but on coming out of the water and trotting along on the hoar-frost, we found it intensely cold, and all our clothing that was wet, immediately became cased with ice; still no inconven- ience of any consequence was sustained. About nine we entered another point of wood, where we had recourse to our snow-shoes, and finding the snow becoming quite soft towards noon, we camped for the day, having travelled fifteen miles. Panax horrida (Hook. Fl. Bor, Am. t. 98), a Dryas, and a Betula, were the only plants I had added to my catalogue ; at night a large Wolverine came to our camp to steal, for which he was shot. We saw great num- bers of Anas Canadensis, and one female of Tetrao Cana- densis. On Monday, the 30th, the heat was just the same as the day before ; our elevation was seven hundred feet above the river. The route lay through a wood and a valley precisely similar to those we had passed yesterday, and during a walk of two miles and a half we were obliged to ford the river seven times, keeping in a direct line from point to point. Four more miles, and as many times crossing the river, brought us to the termination of this platform or valley, and here the stream parts into two branches, the larger one flowing from the North, the other from due East. We crossed at the angle between the two streams, and commenced our ascent of the Big Hill. The snow being so deep, at least six feet, the markings on the trees which indicated the path were frequently hid, arid we found it no easy matter to keep the track. The steep ascent, the deep gullies, the brushwood and fallen timber, rendered walking very labourious. We encamped two miles up the hill, having gained five miles to-day. The