﻿1848. HAY RIVER. 157 



hours' pulling, put into Canoe or Sandy Elver to 

 cook breakfast. From this place a rising ground 

 on the north side of the lake Is distinctly visible, 

 the distance being about thirty miles or more. 

 The Horn Mountain, an even ridge more to the 

 westward, appeared also in the extreme distance, 

 being at least sixty miles off. 



Hay River enters the lake at the distance of 

 eleven or twelve miles from Canoe River. It is 

 formed of two branches, the westernmost of which 

 rises from Hay Lake and the other one originates 

 not far from the banks of Peace River, and flows 

 past Fort Yermilion. Hay River Fort, now aban- 

 doned, stood at the junction of the two. On' the 

 eastern branch, the country is an agreeable mixture 

 of prairie and woodland, and this is the limit of 

 those vast prairies which extend from New Mexico. 

 Below the forks of Hay River the country is covered 

 with a forest intersected by swamps. 



The range of the Wapiti is nearly coincident 

 with the boundaries of these prairies. The bison, 

 though inhabiting the prairies in vast bands, 

 frequents also the wooded country, and once, I 

 believe, almost all parts of it down to the coasts of 

 the Atlantic ; but it had not until lately crossed the 

 Rocky Mountain range, nor is it now known on the 

 Pacific slope, except in a very few places. Its 

 most northern limit is the Horn Mountain men- 



