214 



Journal of a Voyage through the 



expedition, and then presented me with a few small, dried 

 fish. Our course was South- West about twelve miles, 

 part of which was an extensive swamp, that was seldom 

 less than knee deep. In the course of the afternoon we 

 had several showers of rain. I had attempted to take an 

 altitude, but it was past meridian. The water of the river 

 before the lodge was quite still, and expanded itself into 

 the form of a small lake. In many other places, indeed, 

 it had assumed the same form. • 



Monday 8. It rained throughout the night, and it was 

 seven in the morning before the weather would allow us to 

 proceed. The guide brought me five small, boiled fish, 

 in a platter made of bark ; some of them were of the carp 

 kind, and the rest of a species for which I am not quali- 

 fied to furnish a name. Having dried our clothes, we set 

 off on our march about eight, and our guide very cheer- 

 fully continued to accompany us ; but he was nc* altogether 

 so intelligible as his predecessors in our service. We 

 learned from him, however, that this lake, through which 

 the river passes, extends to the foot of the mountain, and 

 that he expected to meet nine men, of a tribe which inha- 

 bits the North side of the river. 



In this part of our journey, we were surprised with the 

 appearance of several regular basons, some of them fur- 

 nished with water, and the others empty ; their slope from 

 the edge to the bottom formed an angle of about forty-five 

 degrees, and their perpendicular depth was about twelve 

 feet. Those that contained water, discovered gravel near 

 their edges, while the empty ones were covered with grass 

 and herbs, among which we discovered mustard and mint. 

 There were also several places from whence the water ap- 

 pears to have retired, which are covered with the same 

 soil and herbage. 



We now proceeded along a very uneven country, the. 

 upper parts of which were covered with poplars, a little 

 under-wood, and plenty of grass : the intervening vallies 

 were watered with rivulets. From these circumstances, 

 and the general appearance of vegetation, I could not ac- 

 count for the apparent absence of animals of every kind. 



At two in the afternoon we arrived at the largest river 

 that we had seen, since we left our canoe, and which forced 

 its way between and over the huge stones that opposed its 

 current. Our course was about South-South-West six- 

 teen miles along the river, which might here justify the 



