218 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



A short stage in the afternoon, passing through 

 firmer ground, still thickly covered with pines, and 

 ankle-deep in a profusion of oak and heech fern, 

 brought us to the banks of the McLeod, where we 

 camped for the night. 



The McLeod is a fine stream, about 150 yards 

 broad, flowing over a rocky, pebbly bed, and clear and 

 shallow like the Pembina. The channel of the latter 

 where we crossed it was clean cut through soft strata, 

 with perpendicular clifis on either side; whilst the 

 banks of the McLeod are wider apart, rising steeply, 

 but not vertically, to a greater height, and richly 

 clothed with pine and aspen. The McLeod is subject 

 to great floods at certain seasons, as evidenced by the 

 great boulders strewn high along the shore, and the 

 collections of driftwood accumulated at difierent points 

 and turns of the river. On the following day we 

 forded it without difficulty, and sending the men for- 

 ward with the pack animals, hitched our horses to a 

 tree, and stojDped to prospect for gold. 



After washing tw^o or three pans of " dirt,'' we 

 found but slight and doubtful traces of the precious 

 metal, and re-ascended the bank to follow our party. 

 Our horses had, however, broken loose and disap- 

 peared, but after a shorfc distance, we discovered 

 Milton's, pulled up by the bridle, which had caught 

 on a stump. The other horse was not to be found. 

 We came up with the train, resting at a beaver 

 swamp, and found that Cheadle's horse had joined the 

 rest, but mthout bridle. The large axe, too, had 

 tumbled out of one of the packs, and we were com- 



