THE PELLY MOUNTAINS 195 



July 23. The whole month of July had been exceed- 

 ingly dry and very hot. The next day was no exception. 

 Many Indians had come to our camp for the purpose of 

 seeing the horse, which aroused intense interest among 

 them. That morning three appeared very early and 

 watched us throw the pack on Danger. So great was 

 their astonishment to see him walk off with a pack of two 

 hundred pounds, that they followed us for three miles 

 and showed us an Indian trail which led to the Lapie 

 River, six miles above its mouth. 



For the first five miles we travelled slowly, in a north- 

 ward direction, crossing some heavily timbered ridges, 

 often pausing to chop trees and brush, until we descended 

 to a fairly level country sparsely timbered with spruces, 

 poplars, and willows. After crossing seven miles through 

 this, we came out upon a high bench rising directly from 

 the Lapie. Through the valley of the river, which there 

 emerges from a box canon, I could see the interior Pelly 

 ranges and the snowy peaks of the divide. As we were 

 descending the bench to the river, the familiar chatter of 

 the ground-squirrel greeted us. We slept near the brawl- 

 ing river, under a clear sky, and the noise of the current 

 brought back many reminiscences of my trip up Coal 

 Creek. 



The Lapie River, so named by Dr. Dawson after one 

 of the faithful Indian companions of Campbell, who 

 first discovered it on his initial trip down the Pelly, enters 

 the Pelly ten miles below the Ross. Its character is 

 strictly similar to that of Coal Creek, but it carries a 

 much larger volume of water so large, in fact, that at 



