1827, MAY. JASPER HOUSE 73 



At this point the snow Was nearly gone, and the temperature greatly 

 increased. Many of the mountains on the right are at all seasons caped 

 with glacier. At ten we stayed to breakfast fifteen miles from the 

 ridge, where we remained four hours. The thermometer this morning 

 stood at 2 below zero, and at 2 P.M. at 57. We found it dreadfully 

 oppressive. 



In starting in the afternoon a little before the party, I missed the 

 path and went out of the way. As the sun Was edging on the mountains, 

 I descried east of me, about a mile behind a low knoll, a curling blue 

 smoke issuing from among the trees, a sign which gave me infinite pleasure. 

 I quickened my steps and in a few minutes came up to it, where I found 

 Jacques Cardinal, who had come to the Moose encampment and brought 

 with him eight horses to take us along. He gave me an excellent supper 

 of the flesh of Ovis montana (Geof.) and regretted he had no spirit to offer 

 me. After supper he jocularly said, pointing to the stream, ' This is 

 my barrel and it is always running/ He also afforded me part of his hut. 



Thursday, 3rd. My companion, Mr. Ermatinger, and the party were 

 brought up by Cardinal this morning ; they were distressed about me, 

 not having made my appearance last night. We breakfasted; and pro- 

 ceeded on the banks of the river, I preferring walking on foot to riding 

 on horseback. The road was still soft and heavy from the recent melting 

 of the snow, and strewn with timber of small size. The difference of 

 climate and of soil, and the amazing difference of the variety and size of 

 vegetation, are truly astonishing ; one would suppose he was in another 

 hemisphere, the change is so sudden and so great. We crossed the 

 principal branch of the Athabasca, a stream 70 yards broad, where it 

 is joined by the branch on the banks of which we descended. There 

 it was our intention to put up for the night, but Cardinal found his 

 horses so unexpectedly strong that the route was continued to the 

 ' Rocky Mountain House/ where we should find canoes, and which we 

 gained shortly after 6 P.M. Several partridges were killed ; but the 

 only plant new to me was Anemone Nuttalliana, 1 which was in full flower. 

 The scenery here is fine, with a small lake and open valley com- 

 manding a sublime prospect of the mountains. Our distance was to-day 

 thirty -four miles. 



Friday, fah. In the fine light birch canoes we embarked at daylight 

 and went rapidly before the stream. The banks of the river are low 

 and woody, some places narrow, others widening out to narrow lakes full 

 of sand shoals. Stayed to breakfast on a small low island in the upper 

 lake, where we had some mountain sheep's flesh given to us by 

 Cardinal's hunter. Continued our route, and passed on our right a ridge 

 of high rugged mountains, and five miles lower down on the left a ridge of 

 lower elevation which is the termination of the dividing ridge on the 

 east. Arrived at Jasper House at 2 P.M. The minimum hat of to-day 

 was 29, the maximum 61. 



Saturday, 5th. This day admits of scarcely any variety. The river 

 is 100 to 140 yards wide, shallow and rapid, with low gravelly woody 

 1 A. patens var. Nuttalliana, S. Wats. Bibl. Ind. N. Am. Bot. p. 5. 



