250 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



operation of forwarding stores over it in waggons, all 

 traffic was stopped several times for days together. 



The valley of the Kaministiquia, where the road 

 crosses it, is extremely pretty : the hills around are 

 sufficiently rugged to be picturesque; whilst fires 

 have for generations back so frequently swept over 

 them that their surface is tolerably open, with rocks 

 cropping up here and there, as if to give shadows to 

 the picture ; clumps of willow are scattered at places, 

 whilst the river's edge is fringed with bushes and 

 stunted trees. The river is about 107 yards in 

 width, and unfordable. The Matawan falls into it 

 about half a mile above the bridge ; above that again 

 is a succession of heavy and imposing-looking rapids, 

 over which our boats were tracked with difficulty, and 

 with trying labour to the men. 



The second section ends where the road crosses the 

 Matawan by a bridge about 70 yards in length, con- 

 structed, like the previous one, during the preceding 

 winter. The distance between the two bridges is 

 about five miles, the road running through some 

 deep valleys and along the sides of rounded hills of 

 red clay, the timber of which lay about in decaying 

 logs, bearing witness to the many fires that have 

 swept over the district at various remote periods. 



As the road descends into the valley of the Mata- 

 wan and enters the third section, the character of the 

 soil and scenery again changes the red clay is left 

 behind, and one enters a rolling country of rich 



