NAKRATIVE. 115 



the steep sandy bank, twenty or thirty feet high, and found ourselves 

 upon a wide plain, bounded by the river on the right, and some steep 

 rocks in the distance, on the left. 



The surface was level and barren, not a tree in sight, but only a 

 uniform expanse of withered herbage, bearberry, lichens and great 

 quantities of blueberries and huckleberries, now ripe, much to our sat- 

 isfaction, for we had not tasted fruit of any sort for so long that even 

 these humble kinds had a flavor unknown before. There were two 

 sorts ; the most abundant was of a light lead color : the other larger 

 and of a dull blackish. We did not stop to gather them however, 

 but pulLxl them by handfuls as we ran along the trail, to the an- 

 noyance of our little Indian, who had evidently calculated upon a 

 deliberate feast. 



The path was worn through the crust of superficial vegetation 

 and the thin seam of mould that supported it, a foot deep into the 

 sand below, and so narrow that we had to walk Indian fashion with 

 toes turned in, and I had some trouble to avoid grazing my ankles 

 with my shoe-soles. My companion wore moccasins, a much more 

 comfortable gear for this ground. 



The weather was very warm, and the flies exceedingly trouble- 

 some, rising in swarms from the blueberry bushes when we touched 

 them. Whether from a presentiment of their coming end, or from 

 some other cause, they were not flying abroad to-day, but collected 

 on the ground. Once roused, however, they showed no backward- 

 ness in making an attack. Having for the first time" open ground 

 enough to observe their manocuvrings, we tried to outrun them, 

 and easily left them behind, but in a short time the swarm, like a 

 pack of wolves, and guided to all appearance in like manner by 

 scent, came ranging up in a body and fell on afresh. 



Continuing on for about a mile we came to a sudden depression in 

 the plain. We stood on the edge of a steep bluff some forty feet 

 high. Below, the broad level valley stretched off apparently to the 

 river on the right, and on the left to some rocky hills several miles 

 distant. It seemed perfectly level and sandy, and in all respects 

 like the plateau on which we stood, except that it was still more 

 barren and showed patches of bare sand. On the opposite side the 

 bluff rose, again as abruptly to about the level at which we stood. 



