112 Account of Captain Franklin* s Expedition . 



to the west ; the opportunity which was thus afforded me of 

 seeing the plants, though not in flower, gave me the means of 

 judging what I had to expect afterwards. I am sorry to say 

 it continues much the same all the way. I now resolved upon 

 going to the mountains, as I was able to accompany a party 

 bound for the Columbia. We here left the Saskatchewan, 

 and crossed through a district, wooded with white spruce and 

 poplars, to the Assinaboyne River, which is about 100 miles 

 N. W. of Edmonton. I merely guess at the distance by 

 walking. Here I observed several plants that had never occur- 

 red to me before, but nothing interesting. The party ascend- 

 ed the Assinaboyne Riverin canoes to the mountains, which 

 are about 300 miles distant, but as the canoes were much 

 loaded, it became necessary for some of us to endeavour to go 

 by land, and I agreed to be one of them, as it offered me 

 a chance of seeing that part of the country. We set off on 

 the 1st October, but unfortunately we had a heavy fall of 

 snow on the 4th, which put an entire stop to botanical re- 

 search. We succeeded in reaching the mountains in ten days, 

 without any accident of importance. The country is closely 

 wooded the whole way, but the ground becomes more broken 

 when approaching the mountains. I here observed a species 

 of Pinus that I had not seen before, probably P. taxifolius. 

 P. Banksiana is the principal wood. I here found an Indian 

 hunter, whom I agreed to accompany during the winter, as 

 the snow effectually prevented me from doing any thing 

 amongst the plants. I however observed, in some spots that 

 were bare, a good many interesting ones, Menziesia coerulea, 

 frequent, Arbutus alpina, with red berries, also common ; four 

 or five species of Pedicularis, Juncus triglumis and spicatus, 

 and two or three other species unknown to me ; a plant much 

 resembling heath, probably a fitudsonia, undescribed by Nut- 

 tall ; four or five Saxifrages, some nondescript ; several Poten- 

 tillas, some of them new. Dry as integrifolia and octopetala, 

 two or three kinds of Draba and Alyssum, not described ; a 

 beautiful Pteris, two or three species of Artemisia, nonde- 

 script. Among the mosses were few that were novelties to 

 me, and none that I can consider alpine. Splachnum angus- 

 tatum, and mnioides are plentiful, also a small Gymnostomum, 



