268 A JOURNEY TO THE 
1772. courfe in the South Weft quarter, we arrived at 
Lom the grand Athapufcow River, which at that | 
January. part is about two miles wide, and empties itfelf | 
into the great lake of the fame name we had fo | 
lately crofled, and which has been already de. 
{cribed. 
The woods about this river, particularly the 
pines and poplars, are the talleft and ftouteft I have _ 
feenin any part of North America. The birch 
alfo grows to a confiderable fize, and fome fpecies é 
of the willow are likewife tall: but none of them — 
have any trunk, like thofe in England. | 
The bank of the river in moft parts is veal 
high, and in fome places not lefs than a hundred — 
fect above the ordinary furface of the water. As’ 
the foil is of a loamy quality, it is very fubject to | 
moulder or wafh away by heavy rains, even dur- _ 
ing the fhort Summer allotted to this part of the | 
globe. The breaking up of the ice in the Spring | 
is annually attended with a great deluge, when, | 
Iam told, it isnot uncommon to fee whole points | 
of land wafhed away by the inundations; and as i 
the wood grows clofe to the edge of the banks, ‘ 
vait quantities of it are hurried down the ftream 
by the irrefiftible force of the water and ice, and | 
conveyed into the great lake already mentioned ; 5 | 
on the fhores and iflands of which, there lies thal 
greateft quantity of drift wood I ever faw. Some | 
of this wood is large enough to make matts for 
the large fhips that are built. The banks of the | 
Fiver in general are fo {teep as to be inacceflible to 
either 
