232 CAPTAIN CART WRIGHT'S 



a gradual descent for about forty yards, with sev- 

 eral rude cubical rocks standing upon it. These 

 made a most complete and magnificent cascade; 

 far superior to the best artificial one I ever saw. 

 Immediately beneath was a deep pool; and the 

 river widened in a circular form, into a spacious 

 basin of three hundred yards diameter, which, 

 taking a short turn below, resembled a circular 

 pond. The water being low, there was a space of 

 some yards between it and the woods: some parts 

 were composed of fragments of rocks; others, of 

 gravel, sand, or flat rocks, w^ith bushes of alder 

 growing in their interstices. The whole was sur- 

 rounded by small, detached hills, covered with 

 spruces and firs, interspersed with larches, birch, 

 and aspin, forming a most pleasing landscape; a 

 drawing of which I greatly regretted I was not 

 able to take. In the lower part of the pool were 

 several island-rocks from one to two yards over; 

 with salmon innumerable, continually leaping 

 into the air, which had attracted a great con- 

 course of bears. Some of them diving after the 

 fish: and I often observed them to get upon a 

 rock, from whence they would take a high leap, fall 

 headforemost into the water, dive to the bottom, 

 and come up again at seventy or eighty yards dis- 

 tance. Others again were walking along shore; 

 some were going into the woods, and others com- 

 ing out. I had not sat there long, ere my atten- 

 tion was diverted, from the variety of objects, 

 which at first presented themselves, to an enor- 

 mous, old, dog bear, which came out of some alder 



