183 



The plan I pursued for collecting was as follows. Wlien 

 the boats stopped to breakfast, I immediately went on shore 

 with my vasculum^ proceeding along the banks of the river, 

 and making short excursions into the interior, taking care, 

 however, to join the boats, if possible, at their encampment 

 for the night. After supper, I commenced laying down the 

 plants gathered in the day's excursion, changed and dried 

 the papers of those collected previously; which operation 

 generally occupied me till daybreak, when the boats started. 

 I then went on board and slept till the breakfast hour, when 

 I landed and proceeded as before. Thus I continued daily 

 until we reached Edmonton House, a distance of about 400 

 miles, the vegetation having preserved much the same char- 

 acter all the way. 



The Aronia ovalis is not uncommon about Carlton House, 

 and its fruit is eaten by the natives, mixed with their pemmi- 

 can, while they prefer the wood which it affords to every other 

 kind for making their arrows. The species of Prunus^ Bird- 

 Cherry, or Choke-Cherry^ is also frequently met with; and its 

 fruit, when fully ripe, is not disagreeable. I found the fruit 

 of the Viburnum edule to be very efficacious in allaying thirst. 

 Several interesting animals of the deer kind occur in this 

 vicinity. One of them, called by the traders the short-taikd 

 Jumping Deer^ is a creature about the size of a fallow deer. 

 It has hair of a beautiful silvery grey colour. I killed a fine 

 specimen of this animal on my journey to Carlton House, In 

 the spring of 1827, but was under the painful necessity of using 

 its skin, after having carried it 15 days, for food. It was a male, 

 and had at that time (the middle of March,) shed its horns. 

 There is another species, called in this country the long-tailed 

 Jumping Beery probably the Mule Deer of Lewis and Clarke, 

 but it did not come under my own observation. The projig- 

 horned Antelope, described by Dr. Richardson, in Captain 

 Franklin's first Expedition, is a very beautiful little animal, 

 of about the size and general appearance of the roebuck. 

 It is considered the swiftest inhabitant of the plains. These 



creatures arrive in ..^.^ 



H 



about the end of Aprih They bring forth their young in May. 



