North-West Continent \of America, 129 



we got every thing to the summit by two in the afternoon. 

 At noon, the latitude was 56. O. 47 North. At five, I 

 sent the men to cut the road onwards, w T hich they effected 

 for about a mile, when they returned. 



The weather was cloudy at intervals, with showers and 

 thunder. At about ten, I observed an emersion of Jupi- 

 ter's second satellite ; time by the achrometer 8. 32. 20. 

 by which I found the longitude to be 120. 29. 30. West 

 from Greenwich. 



Thursday 23. The weather was clear at four this morn- 

 ing, when the men began to carry. I joined Mr. Mackay, 

 and the two Indians, in the labour of cutting a road. The 

 ground continued rising gently till noon, when it began to 

 decline ; but though on such an elevated situation, we 

 could see but little, as mountains of a still higher eleva- 

 tion, and covered with snow, were seen far above us in 

 every direction. In the afternoon the ground becam e very 

 uneven ; hills and deep denies alternately presented them- 

 selves to us. Our progress, however, exceeded my ex- 

 pectation, and it was not till four in the afternoon that the 

 carriers overtook us. At five, in a state of fatigue that 

 may be more readily conceived than expressed, we en- 

 camped near a rivulet or spring that issued from beneath 

 a large mass of ice and snow. 



Our toilsome journey of this day I compute at about 

 three miles ; along the first of which the land is covered 

 with plenty of wood, consisting of large trees, encumbered 

 with little underwood, through which it was by no means 

 difficult to open a road, by following a w ell-beaten elk path j 

 for the two succeeding miles we found the country over- 

 spread with the trunks of trees, laid low by fire some years 

 ago ; among which large copses had sprung up of a close 

 growth, and intermixed with briars, so as to render the 

 passage through them painful and tedious. The soil in 

 the woods is light and of a dusky colour ; that in the burn- 

 ed country is a mixture of sand and clay with small stones. 

 The trees are spruce, red-pine, cypress, poplar, white 

 birch, willow, alder, arrow-wood, red-wood, liard, service- 

 tree, bois picant, &c. I never saw any of the last kind be- 

 fore. It rises to about nine feet in height, grows in joints 

 without branches, and is tufted at the extremity. The stem 

 is of an equal size from the bottom to the top, and does 

 not exceed an inch in diameter ; it is covered with small 

 prickles, which caught our trowsers, and working through 



