NORTH-WEST BRANCH OF THE THOMPSON. 275 



diameters of thirteen feet and ten feet. Pines, of 

 almost equal girth, towered up to a height of over 

 300 feet. There was no open ground, and the horses 

 fed on twigs and mare's-tail ; the road was hillj, 

 swamps occupying the hollows. 



On the fifth day after leaving The Cache we crossed 

 to the western bank of the river we were folio win o- 

 and which we concluded to be a branch of the 

 Thompson. This had now become about thirty yards 

 in width, and so deep that we were compelled to carry 

 the horses' packs on our shoulders as we rode across, 

 to prevent their being soaked. After crossing two 

 smaller streams from the west, we came to a deep arm 

 of the river, with banks of soft mud, which we crossed, 

 after long delay, by leading the horses over an old 

 beaver-dam. We were still in the midst of snowy 

 mountains, and steep pine-clad hills closely shut in the 

 valley on either side. 



On the 25 th July, the sixth day after leaving The 

 Cache, having passed Mount Milton to the right, we 

 were arrested by a large river flowing from the 

 north-west, which here joined the one which we 

 had followed from the north. This river was some 

 sixty yards in width, and bank-full with glacier- 

 w^ater. At the angle formed by the junction of the 

 two rivers we camped, in order to search for the 

 emigrants' trail forward. We found one of their 

 camps here, and more wood cut dowm than needed for 

 fires, leading us to suppose that they had made a raft, 

 and crossed to one bank or other of the main river 

 below the fork. We had expected that they would 



s 2 



