1827, APRIL. BIG HILL 257 



crust of frost. Found the cold piercing, alternately plunging to the middle 

 in water 35 Fahrenheit and skipping with my load to recover my heat 

 among the hoar frost. At 9 A.M. entered a point of wood where the snow 

 was 4 to 7 feet deep, with a weak crust not strong enough to support us. 

 Obliged to put on my bears' paws ; path rough, and in addition to the 

 slender crust, which gives the traveller more labour, were dead trees and 

 brushwood lying in all directions, among which I was frequently caught. 

 Towards noon, the snow having become soft and we weary with fatigue, 

 camped on the brink of a river, where no time was lost in making a little 

 breakfast, every person's appetite being well sharpened by our walk. 

 Travelled in the wood four and a half miles, course north. Progress to-day 

 fifteen miles. Saw large number of geese on the banks of the river in 

 the valley, but none were killed. Killed one female wood-partridge, I 

 think not different from that on the coast, only a deeper brown and red 

 above the upper latchet of the eye ; does not seem shy. I wanted to take 

 it alive ; stood till within two yards and then fluttered among the dead 

 leaves when I placed a little lead in her body. The Aralia or Panax 

 found on the Cascade Mountains here grows 8 to 12 feet high and propor- 

 tionally strong : gathered a few seeds of it, perhaps will grow. On the 

 dry places of the valley passed through Potentilla fruticosa, and Dryas 

 species are found in abundance. Betula, sp., a tree 40 to 60 feet high, 

 18 inches to 2^ feet diameter, in the moist parts of the woods ; of this the 

 canoes are made. In the twilight last night the Wolverene paid us a 

 second visit, when I gave a few shots which he thought he could carry, 

 which he did in consequence of it being dark, he secreting himself in some 

 hole under the root of a tree. | Evening fine. Made a pair of socks out 

 of the legs of a pair of old stockings ; the feet being worn, took the skirts 

 of my coat to wrap round my toes instead of socks. Strict economy here 

 is requisite : my feet, ankles and toes very painful from the lacing of my 

 snowshoes ; otherwise, well and comfortable, lying in a deep hole or pit 

 among the snow on a couch of pine branches with a good fire at my feet. 

 If good weather visits us, we are thankful ; if bad, we make the best of 

 a bad situation by creeping each under his blanket, and, when wet, dry it 

 at the fire. 



Monday, 3Qth. Maximum heat 43 at my camp 700 feet on the 

 mountain, at 4 P.M. in the valley 22. In the grey of the morning we 

 resumed our route on snowshoes in the wood about three-quarters of a mile. 

 Entered a second valley, course north-east. Kested after having travelled 

 two and a quarter miles, in the course of which we made seven fordings 

 over the same river that we crossed yesterday. Continued in the same 

 course for the distance of four miles more until reaching the east end, 

 making four fordings more. Here the stream divides into two branches, 

 that on the left flowing from the north, that on the right due east. Took 

 our course in the angle between the two, north-east, entering a thick wood 

 of the same kinds of timber already noticed. Pinus balsamea 1 more 

 abundant and of greater size. After passing a half mile in the wood 

 reached the foot of what is called the Big Hill, also thickly wooded. Steep 

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



