country of the Blackfeet, and a third Indian, an expert hunter and goad interpreter, completed the number of my little escort. I then journeyed on toward the sources of the Columbia. The country we traversed was highly picturesque and agreeably diversified by beautiful prairies, from which poured forth spicy odors of flower and shru
fresh spirit-elating breezes, smiling; valleys and lakes, surrounded by hoary and solemn pines, gracefully waving their flexible branches. We also crossed magnificent dark Alpine forests, where the sound of the axe has never resounded they are watered by streams which impetuously rush over savage crags and precipices from the range of mountains on the right. This stupendous chain appears like some impregnable barrier of colossal firmness. From Tobacco Prairie to the sources of the Columbia., we found a fine practicable trail.
All hail! Majestic Rock --the home, Where many a wand'ver yet shall come, Where God himself from his own heart, Shall health and peace and joy impart.a
The 4th of September, toward noon, I found myself at the source of the Columbia. I contemplated with admiration those rugged and gigantic mountains where the
I river escapes -majestic, but impetuous even at its source; and in its vagrant course it is undoubtedly the most dangerous river on the western side of the American hemi sphere. Two small lakes from four to five miles in length, formed by a number of springs and streams, are the reservoirs of its first waters.
From Father De Smet's Ode to the Rocky Mountains, see p. 1354.
9 Letter dated Source of the Columbia, September p, 1945.
conduct me to the
I had they hav of my reco