Monseigneur:"
The last few days we journeyed with the little Assiniboin ,), `the aspect of the country offered nothing very interesting. We passed from valley to valley between tv high chains of adamantine mountains, whose slopes are here and there ornamented with mounds of perpetual snow. A beautiful crystalline fountain issues from the centre of ndicuiar rock about ,500 feet high, and there pours its waters over the plain in foam and mist.
The 27th we separated from the Assiniboins; the path conducted us through a thick forest of cypress; I am told this is the last - Deo Gratias! These belts of tall firs are very numerous, and form great obstacles and barriers to land communications between the east and west of the mountains. I have a little word of advice to give all who
wish to visit these latitudes. At the entrance of each thick forest, one should render himself as slender, as short and as contracted as possible, imitating the different evolutions in all encounters of an intoxicated cavalier, but with skill and presence of mind. I mean to say, he should know how to once himself -cling to the saddle in every form, to avoid the numerous branches that intercept his passage, ever ready
to tear him into pieces, and flay his face and hands. Notwithstanding these precautions, it is rare to escape without
paying tribute in some manner to the ungracious forest. I one day found myself in a singular and critical position in attempting to pass under a tree that inclined across the path, I perceived a small branch in form of a hook, which threatened me. The first impulse was to extend myself
upon the neck of my horse. Unavailing precaution t It caught me by the collar of my surtout, the horse still continu ing his pace. Behold me suspended in the air -struggling
like a fish at the end of a hook. Several respectable pieces of my coat floated, in all probability, a long time in the forest, as an undeniable proof of my having paid toll in 28 Dated Rocky Mountain House, October 5, 1845.