286 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



country lay mapped at our feet ; as far as the eye could 

 reach, sand-hills, north, east, and west, sometimes bare 

 and ripple-marked, but generally covered with short 

 grass, were exposed to view. 



On the afternoon of this day a hail storm of unusual 

 violence caused us to halt. The stones penetrated the 

 bark of our canoes and broke off the gum. The grass- 

 hoppers, which were very numerous just before the 

 storm began, suddenly disappeared, but they might be 

 found quietly clinging to the leaves of grass in anticipa- 

 tion of the storm. After it had passed they re-appeared, 

 apparently in undiminished numbers, although every mem- 

 ber of the party, crouching for shelter under the carts 

 and waggon, fully expected the complete annihilation of 

 these destructive and troublesome insects. A wonderful 

 instinct enables them to seek and find refuge from a 

 pitiless hailstorm or a drenching rain. The same evening 

 a thunderstorm of short duration again arrested our pro- 

 gress, but the sun set in gorgeous magnificence, with 

 a brilliant rainbow and vivid flashes of lightning in the 

 east. The cinnamon thrush is not uncommon among 

 the sandy hills ; we saw several during the day. The 

 following morning we reached the " pines," for which we 

 had been anxiously looking, but to our disappointment 

 they proved to be nothing more than balsam spruce in 

 scattered clumps. 



The heat of the weather began now to be very op- 

 pressive, and joined to the incessant attacks of mosquitoes 

 and " bulldogs" proved very exhausting to the horses. At 

 each camping-place we were compelled to make "smokes" 

 to drive away these tormentors, otherwise the persecuted 

 animals would endeavour to approach our camp fires, 

 creating no small confusion in our cooking arrangements. 

 On the 23rd, we traversed a region of sand-hills and 



