NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION. 241 



on ilry ground. Eelieved from the entanglement about our feet, 

 we soon found ourselves ascending an elevation of the drift stra- 

 tum, consisting of oceanic sand, with boulders. On the side of 

 this eminence we enjoyed our first omoayhee. The day had de- 

 veloped itself clear and warm, and glad indeed were we to find 

 the chief had put down his canoe, and by the time we reached 

 had lit his pipe. The second onwaybee brought us to the summit 

 of this elevation ; the third to the side of a ridge beyond it ; the 

 fourth to another summit ; in fine, we found ourselves crossing 

 a succession of ridges and depressions, which seemed to have 

 owed their original outlines to the tumultuous waves of some 

 mighty ocean, which had once had the mastery over the high- 

 lands. Trail there was often none. The day being clear, the 

 chief, however, held his course truly, and when he was turned 

 out of it by some defile, or thicket, or bog, he again found his 

 line at the earliest possible point. In one of the depressions, we 

 crossed a little lake in the canoes ; in another, we followed the 

 guide on foot, through and along the border of a shallow lake, to 

 avoid the density of the thickets. 



Eipe strawberries were brought to me at one of our onwaybees. 

 I observed the diminutive rebus nutkanus on low grounds. The 

 common falco was noticed, and the Indians remarked tracks of 

 the deer, not, however, of very recent date. The forest growth 

 is small, by far the most common species being the scrubby pinus 

 banksianus, exhibiting its parasitic moss. The elevated parts of 

 the route were sufficiently open, with often steep ascents. Over 

 these sienite and granite, quartz and sandstone boulders w^ere 

 scattered. Every step we made in crossing these sandy and 

 diluvial elevations, seemed to inspire renewed ardor in com- 

 pleting the traverse. The guide had called the distance, as we 

 computed it, about six, or six and a half miles. We had been four 

 hours upon it, now clambering up steeps, and now brushing 

 through thickets, when he told us we were ascending the last 

 elevation, and I kept close to his heels, soon outwent him on 

 the trail, and got the first glimpse of the glittering nymph we 

 had been pursuing. On reaching the summit this wish was 

 gratified. At a depression of perhaps a hundred feet below, 

 cradled among the hills, the lake spread out its elongated volume, 

 presenting a scene of no common picturesqueness and rural 

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