199 



swollen on my return, that I was compelled to remain for 

 days a prisoner on the other side, to the great hindrance of 

 my plans, and injury of the plants collected. This difficulty 

 could not be avoided but by having two or three men and a 

 skin canoe. Many of the plants that grow here are very 

 local, apparently often confined to one particular mountain 

 or valley, and I am quite confident that if any one could 

 penetrate farther into the interior than it was in my power to 

 do, they would be amply repaid for the fatigue thereby 

 incurred. It might be easily managed by carrying a suf- 

 ficient quantity of Pemmican, made previously, or obtained 

 from the flesh of the animals that occur here, and thus 

 reaching the Height of Land before the melting of the snow. 

 As an instance of the exclusive locality of some plants, I may 

 mention what I observed in a small plain, surrounded by 

 mountains, and situated about 30 miles west from Lac-la- 

 Pierre, and called by the hunters the Wolf Plain. Here I 

 gathered Claytonia lanceolata, Anemone patens, a large species 

 of Valeriana, Spergula saginoides, Veronica officinalis. Ciner- 

 aria ? Tussilago frigida, Lupinus perennis, and new species 

 of the genera Ranuncidus, Caltha, Trollius, Potentilla, &c. &c. ; 

 most of these were in the greatest abundance, and scarcely 

 observed anywhere else during my route. Splachnwm urceo- 

 latum and sphcericum also grew there, and Neph7'oma polaris. 

 Among the mosses which I saw in the vicinity of Jasper's 

 House, were Phascum cuspidatum, Gymnostomum Heimii, 

 Weissia latifoUa, Systylium splachnoides, Tayloria splach- 

 noides, &c. 



The effects of the unusually cold winter were now ob- 

 servable in the excessive emaciation of the animals, which 

 were reduced to skin and bone. All vegetation was ex- 

 tremely backward, and according to the assertion of the old 

 Canadian, who had been resident for many years among the 

 Rocky Mountains, the waters were higher than they had 

 been for twenty years. To conclude, the mosquitoes were 

 also dreadfully numerous, owing to the almost continual rain ; 

 for in dry weather, when the atmosphere is clear and frosty 

 at night, these insects are much diminished in quantity. We 



