Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/218

212 212 JOURNAL AND LETTERS OF DAVID DOUGLAS. formed cauldrons of limestone and basalt. Seven miles below the pass, as do the tributaries of the Columbia on the western side, so the Athabasca widens into a narrow lake, and has a much greater distance than the Columbia. At this point the snow had nearly disappeared, and the temperature was greatly increased. Many of the moun- tains on the right hand are at all seasons tipped with glaciers. At ten we stopped to breakfast, fifteen miles from the ridge, where we remained for four hours. The thermometer stood at 2 below Zero this morning, and had risen to 57 at two P. M., a heat which we found dread- fully oppressive. This afternoon, having set off a little before the party, I missed my way and wandered from the path. As the sun was edging on the mountains I descried about a mile off to the East, behind a low knoll, a curling blue smoke rising from above the trees, a sign which gave me infinite pleasure. I quickened my steps and soon came up to it, when I found Jacques Cardinal, who came to the Moose Encampment, and brought with him eight horses to help us on our way. He treated me to an ex- cellent supper of mutton, the flesh of A vis montana( Geoff.), and regretted he had no spirits to offer me. Pointing to the stream, he jocularly said, "there's my barrel, and it is always running." The kind fellow also offered me a part of his hut. On the next morning, Thursday, the 3d, the whole party were brought up by Cardinal ; they had been very uneasy at my nonappearance the preceding night. We break- fasted and proceeded by the banks of the stream, I pre- ferring walking, though the ground was still soft from the recently melted snow, and strewed with timber of small size. The difference of climate and soil, with the amazing disparity in the variety and stature of the vegetation, is truly astonishing ; one would suppose it was another hem- isphere, the change is so sudden and so great. We crossed