ACCOUNT OP THE INDIANS. 



283 



whiQh he took to be the Columbia River ; but it 

 is now known to be several miles north of that no- 

 ble stream. The other large river of New Cal- 

 edonia, rises near Great Bear's Lake ; and after 

 passing through several considerable lakes, it en- 

 ters the Pacific Ocean, several hundred miles north 

 of Fraser's River. 



The mountains of New Caledonia, in point of 

 elevation, are not to be compared with those 

 which we pass through in coming up that part of 

 Peace River, which lies between the Rocky 

 Mountain portage and Finlay's Branch. There 

 are some, however, which are pretty lofty ; and 

 on the summits of one in particular, which we see 

 from Stuart's Lake, the snow lies during the whole 

 of the year. 



The weather is not severely cold, except for a 

 few days in the winter, when the mercury is some- 

 times as low as 32° below zero, in Faranheit's ther- 

 mometer. The remainder of the season, is much 

 milder than it is on the other side of the mountain, 

 in the same Latitude. The summer is never very 

 warm, in the day time ; and the nights are generally 

 cool. In every month in the year, there are frosts. 

 Snow generally falls about the fifteenth of Novem- 

 ber, and is all dissolved by about the fifteenth of 

 May. About M c Leod's Lake the snow sometimes 

 falls to the depth of five feet ; and I imagine that 



