98 DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 



distant blue land was seen faintly in the clear 

 horizon to the right. At 8 p. m., the people 

 being completely tired, I encamped for the 

 night. 



August 14th. — The thermometer had sunk 

 to 30° ; and when at 4 a. m, we resumed our 

 course, the water was found to be slightly en- 

 crusted with ice, which, together with the cold 

 wind, so cracked and injured the bark of the 

 canoe, as to make it necessary to repair her. 



The country to the left became gradually 

 less rugged, subsiding into round-backed hills, 

 whose sloping sides were covered with wood ; 

 the uniformity being agreeably broken by two 

 light columns of smoke issuing at separate points, 

 most likely from the fires of some straggling hunt- 

 ers. But the scenery to the right increased in 

 grandeur and boldness ; and. never, either in Alp 

 or Apennine, had I seen a picture of such rug- 

 ged wildness. Rising to a perpendicular height of 

 upwards of twelve hundred feet, the rocks were 

 rent, as if by some violent convulsion, into deep 

 chasms and ragged fissures, inaccessible to the 

 nimblest animal. A few withered pines, grey 

 with age, jutted their shrivelled arms from the 

 extreme ridge of the abyss : on one of which a 

 majestic fishing eagle was seated, and there, 

 unscared by our cries, reigned in solitary 

 state, the monarch of the rocky wilderness. 



