Rocky Mountains, 99 



On the morning cf the 8th, we continued our journey, 

 crossing and recrossing the river several times. This we 

 found necessary, as the occurrence of steep and rocky ravines 

 made it impossible to pass along the bank parallel to the 

 •course of the river, which here became more meandering, 

 winding about the points of rocky and impassable promon- 

 tories. 



Few trees occur along this part of the valley, but grape- 

 vines were becoming numerous, and some of them loaded 

 with fruit. Among these we saw signs of the black bear, and 

 one of these animals was shot at but not killed. We also saw 

 some recent tracks of bisons, reviving us with the hope of a 

 return of the days of plenty. We constantly met with the re- 

 mains of Indian encampments; trees wkhich had been felled 

 with the tomahawk, and other evidences that the country 

 had been recently occupied by savages. 



We passed in the afternoon, to a more plain and fertile 

 country than that we had for some days been traversing. 

 The river valley became wide, and bounded on both sides 

 by low and rounded hills, instead of abrupt and perpendicu- 

 lar precipices. The general surface of the country is but 

 little elevated above the river, and is nearly unbroken. 



We crossed the beds of several creeks, apparently large 

 streams in the wet season, but now entirely destitute of wa- 

 ter. As yet we had not crossed a single tributary discharg- 

 ing any water into the river, nor had we been able to dis- 

 cover any augmentation of the volume of water, which ap- 

 peared to have been derived from tributaries entering on 

 the other side. The channels of all the creeks, hitherto ob- 

 served, were beds of sand without water. Several of these 

 *' dry rivers," which we passed in the course of the day, 

 have broad vallies, which, if we may judge from a compa- 

 rison with that we were descending, must have an extent of 

 more than one hundred miles, draining a wide expanse of 

 country of the surplus water in the rainy season, but re- 



