162 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. tude, by account, was 24° 1' West from Prince of Wales's 

 J"'y-Fort, or 118° 15' West of the meridian of London. 

 2d, On the second, the weather proved very bad, with much 

 snow and sleet ; about nine o'clock at night, however, it grew 

 more moderate, and somewhat clearer, so that we set out, and 

 walked about ten miles to the North by West, when we lay 

 down to take a little sleep. At our departure from Conge- 

 cathawhachaga, several Indians who had entered the war list, 

 rather chose to stay behind with the women ; but their loss 

 was amply supplied by Copper Indians, who accompanied us 

 in the double capacity of guides and warriors. 

 3d. On the third the weather was equally bad with that of the 

 preceding day ; we made shift, however, to walk ten or eleven 

 miles in the same direction we had done the day before, and 

 at last were obliged to put up, not being able to see our way 

 for snow and thick drift. By putting up, no more is to be 

 understood than that we got to leeward of a [132] great stone, 

 or into the crevices of the rocks, where we regaled ourselves 

 with such provisions as we had brought with us, smoked 

 our pipes, or went to sleep, till the weather permitted us to 

 proceed on our journey. 

 4th. On the fourth, we had rather better weather, though 

 constant light snow, which made it very disagreeable under 

 foot. We nevertheless walked twenty-seven miles to the 

 North West, fourteen of which were on what the Indians call 

 the Stony Mountains ; and surely no part of the world better 

 deserves that name. On our first approaching these moun- 

 tains, they appeared to be a confused heap of stones, utterly 

 inaccessible to the foot of man : but having some Copper 

 Indians with us who knew the best road, we made a tolerable 

 shift to get on, though not without being obliged frequently 

 to crawl on our hands and knees. Notwithstanding the 

 intricacy of the road, there is a very visible path the whole 

 way across these mountains, even in the most difficult parts : 

 and also on the smooth rocks, and those parts which are 



