168 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



with a Canadian attendant, and they promised 

 not to pass a range of hills then in view to the 

 northward, unless we sent notice to them. 



The river during the whole of this day's voy- 

 age flowed between alternate cliffs of loose sand 

 intermixed with gravel, and red sand stone rocks, 

 and was everywhere shallow and rapid. As its 

 course was very crooked, much time was spent 

 in examining the different rapids previous to 

 running them, but the canoes descended them, 

 except at a single place, without any difficulty. 

 Most of the officers and half the men marched 

 along the land to lighten the canoes, and recon- 

 noitre the country, each person being armed with 

 a gun and a dagger. Arriving at a range of 

 mountams which had terminated our view yes- 



terday, we ascended it with much 

 pectmg to see the rapid that Mr. Hearne visited 

 near to its base, and to gain a view of the sea; 

 but our disappointment was proportionably great, 

 when we beheld beyond, a plain similar to that 

 we had just left, terminated by another range of 

 trap hills, between whose tops the 

 some distant blue 



reliance on the information of the^guides, which 

 had been for some time shaken was now quite at 

 "^ end, and we feared that the sea was still far 



eagerness, 



summits 01 

 mountains appeared. Our 



distant. The 



: country here is covered with 



