Here
Poplars and birch trees ever quivering played, nodding cedars formed a vagrant shade; whose high branches, waving with the storm, The birds of broadest wings their mansion form; The jay, the magpie, the loquacious crow,
And soar aloft and skim the deeps below. Here limpid fountains from the clefts distil, And every fountain forms a noisy rill,
In mazy windings wandring down the hill."- Pope.
Momseignettr:"
We bade adieu to the Morigeau family on the 9th, and to their companions of the chase, the Shooswaps. We quitted the upper valley of the Columbia by a small footaaffi, which soon conducted us to a narrow mountain defile," where the light of day almost vanished from
amidst the huge, bold barriers of colossal rocks. The grand, the sublime, the beautiful, here form the most singular and fantastic combinations. Though gray is the prevailing color, my find -gin immense rock of porphyry, or white-veined granite. Here and there, from the fissures of the rock, or wherever there is a handful of dust, the heavy and immortal pine enroots itself, adding its gloomy verdure to the variegated hues of the torpid rocks. These circuitous paths often present the most ravishing and Picturesque vistas: surrounded by colossal walls, the greatest diversity and most
utiful scenery in nature is spread out before the eye.
12 Letter dated Foot of the Cross of Peace, September is, t845.
Is" In 1845, while trying to reach the summit of the Rocky Mountains and cross it to reach the Blackfoot Country, I left the upper lakes of the Columbia by a narrow valley along the bank of a great torrent, between two lofty chains of mountains. This valley and mountain stream bear the name of `the place where the old man lied! I learned from my guides that the Indians speak of the place with horror ro their children, as of an accursed land, and inspire them with an aversion for lying. They assured me that when the savages traverse this 'Liar's Valley.' they observe profound silence."-Letter written in July. 1855,