70 DOUGLAS' JOURNAL 



35 yards, rapids, whirlpools, and eddies ; on both sides mountains 6000 or 

 8000 feet from their base, with rugged perpendicular rocks to the bed of 

 the river, covered with dead timber of enormous growth, the roots of which 

 have been laid bare by the torrents and were hurled by the violence of 

 the wind from the high precipices, bringing with them immense masses 

 of granite attached to their roots, spreading devastation before them. 

 Passing this place just as the sun was tipping the mountain tops, 

 his feeble rays now and then seen through the shady pine imparted a 

 melancholy sensation on beholding this picture of gloomy wildness. 



On the 25th we passed the 'Narrows of Death,' a terrific place in the 

 river, which takes its name from a melancholy story which I cannot here 

 relate, where ten individuals endured almost unparalleled suffering and at 

 last were all released by death but one. 



At noon on April 27th we had the satisfaction of landing at the boat 

 encampment at the base of the Kocky Mountains. How familiar soever 

 high snowy mountains may have been to us, where in such a case we 

 might be expected to lose that just notion of their immense altitude, 

 yet on beholding the grand dividing ridge of the continent all that we 

 have seen before disappears from the mind and is forgotten, by the height, 

 the sharp and indescribably rugged peaks, the darkness of the rocks, the 

 glacier and eternal snow. The principal branch of the Columbia is here 

 60 yards wide, the Canoe river 40 yards, the middle branch 30 yards, the 

 one on whose banks we ascend. 



Saturday, 28th. Having the whole of my journals, a tin box of seeds, 

 and a shirt or two tied up in a bundle, we commenced our march across 

 the mountains in an easterly course, first entering a low swampy piece of 

 ground about 3 miles long, knee deep of water and covered with rotten 

 ice through which we sunk to the knees at every step. Crossed a deep 

 muddy creek and entered a point of wood principally consisting of pine 

 P[inus] balsamea, 1 P. nigra* P. alba, 3 and P. Strobus, and Thuya plicata. 

 About eleven we entered the snow, which was 4 to 7 feet deep, moist and 

 soft, and together with the fallen timber, made heavy walking on snow- 

 shoes. Camped on the west side of the middle branch of the Columbia. 

 Of animals we saw only two species of squirrels. 



Sunday, 2$th. Minimum heat 23, maximum 43. After a sound, 

 refreshing night's rest we started this morning at four, due east for six 

 miles, in the course of which we made six traverses or fordings of the 

 river, which was 2| to 3 feet deep, clear, and with a powerful current. 

 Though the breadth did not exceed 25 to 50 yards, the length of time in 

 the water was considerable, for the feet cannot with safety be lifted 

 from the bottom, but must be slided along the moment the water gets 

 under the sole, over goes the person. It is necessary in very powerful 

 currents to pass in a body, the one supporting the other, in an oblique 

 direction. This is a level valley 3 miles broad, dry at this season, but 

 during the summer is an inland lake bounded by the mountains. Our 



1 Abies balsamea, Mast, in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. p. 189. 



2 Picea nigra, Mast. loc. cit., p. 222. 



3 Picea alba, Mast. loc. cit., p. 221. 



