at this season of the year. On approaching, a dozen guns were at once leveled against the innocent and timid creatures. I was pleased to observe, by the wonderful rapidity with which they used their legs, that no one had injured their noble and beautiful frames.
On the Loth, toward the middle of the day, we arrived at the Boat Encampment, on the bank of the Columbia, at the mouth of the Portage river. Those who have passed the Rocky Mountains at 53° of north latitude, during the great melting of the snows, know whether or not we merit the title of good travelers. It required all my strength to accomplish it, and I confess that I would not dare undertake it again.
After so many labors and dangers, we deserved a repast. Happily, we found at the encampment all the ingredients that were necessary for a feast - a bag of flour, a large ham, part of a reindeer, butter, cheese, sugar, and tea in abundance, which the gentlemen of the English brigade had charitably left behind. While some were employed calking and refitting the barge, others prepared the dinner; and in about an hour we found ourselves snugly seated and stretched out around the kettles and roasts, laughing and joking about the summersets on the mountains and the accidents on the Portage. I need not tell you that they described me as the most clumsy and awkward traveler in the band.
Three beautiful rivers unite at this place: the Columbia, coming from the southeast -the Portage river, from the northeast, and the Canoe river from the northwest. We were surrounded by a great number of magnificent mountains, covered with perpetual snow, and rising from twelve to sixteen thousand feet above the level of the ocean. The Hooker and the Brown are the highest, the latter measuring 16,ooo feet.