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Show I [ 243] 60 seen as throug-h glass. This I boil ed and stretched on a piece of wood to the requisi te diaructer, aud scraped 1t 'very t.hin, it! o~ucr to increase .to the 11tmost its transp<treucy. 1 then securrd II frnnly tn Its pla~e o.n the Jllstnt-llleut witlt strong <rlue made from a l.Hill:d o, and filled Jt w1th merc11rY properly hea... ted. An pie' ce <{ . kiu, whi ch had cover~·<.l o11e of t I1 e p Itt. a Is . fnrmshed a rrood pocket which was well secured w1th s trong thread ami <rlue, and thte-n the brass' Gover wa:::; screwed to l. t . p1a ce. '1111 e w. st ntmc·n t ~as left c::omc ti111e to drv and when l rever:'cd it, a few hours after, 1 hnd the satisf~tction to find it in perfect order; jts iudi catio11s bciug about tho sante as on the other side of the lake, bdi.nc it had been broken. Ollr ~ n ccrs£ in thi little in ciclC'nt ditfnsed plensnt e throu~·hout the camp, all(} we immediately srt nhout onr prC'parations for asce1.1diug the nwtm.tains . . As will be seen , on rr fercnce to a map, on tins short monntalll cham arc the head waters of four gTeat rivers of the continent ; narncl y, the Colorado, Columbia, Missouri , atHl Platte rivers. lt had been my design, after. havincr a ·cencled the mountains to continue our rontc on the western s1de of th~ range, und crossin~ lh 1 rough n pa ·s at. the norllnvestcrn end of the chain, about thirty mile from our present camp, return along the eastern slope, across the ltendd of the Y ellowstoue river, aud jt~i 11 on the l in.e to our station of An trnst 7 immediately at the foot of the ndge. In this way I ~ , ., \ . sbonld be enllblecl to include lite whole chain, and it · Jltllnerons waters, 1n my survey ; but various considerations induced me; very reluctantly, to ubJndon this plan. . I was desirous to keep ~tri c tly within the scope of my instructions, and H would have required ten or fifteen additional dnys for the accompli lunent of chis obj ·ct; our anilllitL had become \· cry much worn out with the J eug~h of the journey; <Tame was very c::cmce; and, though it docs not appear m the course of th ~ nnrrnriv , as I have avoided dwelling upon trifling- incidents not connected with the obj ects of the <'xpcdition, the spirits of the me• had been much exhausted by the hard ship~ and pri\'ations to which they hud been subjected. Our provi ·ions had welt ni~·ll all di ·~pprarcd. I3rcad had been Ion~ out of the q11 estion , und of nil our stock we had r'maitJing t~vo or three ponnd ·of com~e, and a small quanrity of macaroni , which had been husbanded with great care for the mountain exprclition we were about to unuertake. Our daily meal consisted of dry lwfhlo meat., cook d in tallow; and, a \ve had not dried this wirh lndia11 skill, part of it was <:'poilerl ; and wlwt rcmn.i11 ed of good, was a~ hard as wood, having much the tasto and nppearan ce of so many pieces of bark. 1•:\·cn of thi:; our stock was ~·apidly dimini:3hillg in a camp which , .. ·as capable of consuming two bnmtlo 111 every 1wenty-four hour::~ . 'rhe~e animaiH lwd c•ntircly di ~a ppPo.ue d , and it was not probable that we should fall in will1 them again until we returned to tlw Swe t \Yater. Our arrangements for the ascent were rapidly cornpletrd; we were in a hostile country, which rrnd ·red the great<'st vig-ilanc and circulll pection necessary. The pass at the north end of the mountain \va genrrally infested by Blackfeet, and irnmediat •ly opposite WiiS one of th eir forts, on thr. edge of a little thicket, f.wo or three hundred feel from 011r enn\11Jp1uent. Vv e were posted in a grove of beech, on the margin of the lake, and a fe\v hundred feet loug, with u narrow p1'fzirillon on the inner sid e, boruered by the rocky ridge. In the upper end of this grove we cleared a circular spo.lce about forty feet in diam eter, and with the fell ed tin1ber and interwoven branches surrounded it with n breastwork fi\·c feet iu height. A gap \\'as left \ 61 [ 243 J for a gate on the inner side, by which the. animals were to be drive.n i~ and aecun,d, while the men slept around the little '~ark. It was half htdden by the foliitge; and gatrisoned by twelve resolute men., wou ld have. set at. defiance any bund of savages which might chance to dt s~:over them m the mtcrval of our nb ence. Fifteen of the best mules, w1th fourteen men, were ~el ec t ed for the n10unt nin party. Our provisions consisted .of dried ~~ ~at for two d<~y s, with our little stock of cofJ'ee and s.ome macnror11. In mldilion to the barometer and a th ermomete r, I took w1th rue a sextant and s pygl~ss, nnd we bad, of co urse, ou r co n1pnsses. In charp;e of tl1e camp I left Ber?Ier, one of my most trustworthy men, who possessed the most clctermmetl .otunge. . .Au.!fust 12.- Early in the morning we left the camp, fifteen m nur~bc r., 'Well arrned of co11rs<', and n1ount <'d on our best mules. A pack. an1mal curried our provi::;ions, with a cofree-pot and. kettle, and th~·ee or fo ~ ~r ll~ cu pA. Every man hnd a blnnket strapped over l11s .saddle to serve for h1s be?, and the instruments were carried by turns on th eir b~cks. \~e ntercd cltrectly on rough and rocky ground ; and, just after crossmg the ndge, had ~he good. fortune to shoot an antelope. We heard the roar, and l1_ad a gl1mpse . o.( & waterfall as we rode along~ and era. sing in our way two fme streams, tnbwtmy to the Colorado, in about two hours rid~ we ~·eaclled the top of the fi rgt row or range of the mountains. Il c r~, again, :"1 v1ew of the 1110 t rorm~n tice beauty met our eyes. It seemed as If, from the vast expanse of.unm-· teresting prairie we had passed over, nature had col.l<'cted ull her beauties .tOgether in one chosen place. We were ovcrlookmg a. f:lcep valley, wh.tch was entirely occupi d by three lakes, and from the bnnk the su rro~mdm g ridges rose precipitously five hundred and a thousaud feet, covered WJ.th the dark green of' the balsam pine, rc lie\'eJ on the .border o~ the lake w1th the light foliage of the aspen. 'fhey all comn:u&atcat.ed w1th each other, and the green of 1 he wate r::;, common to nwuntam lakes o~ great ~rpt h, showed that it would be impossible to cross th em. '"rhe surpnse rnan rfcstcd by our: guides when these impas ~\hi e obs t acle~ suudenly burred our prog ress, proved \hat they were amon ~ the hidden treasures of ~h e place~ unknown even to tho wandering tmppers of the region. Descendm<r the h.dl, we proceeded ~o make our way along the margin to the so uthern ext rcnuty. A narrow stnp of angular fragments of rock, sometimes affort~e<l a .rough pa~hway for our mules, but generally we rode along tl~ e s ~1 e lv11~ g sale, occa~10nally scrambling up at n considcmhle ri~k of tutnbltr_)g nack Into tile Jake. 11he slope was frec}ltCntly 60° ~ the pmes gTew densely togct~10r, a~d the ground was covered with the branches and trunks of treeg. 1 he atr w~ fragrant wirh the odour of the pines; ~nd ~ real~zed this dcli11·htful morning t.he pl easure of breathin rr that mounti.un atr wh1ch makes n constant theme of the hunt er's praise, nr~d which now made us fe.el as if we had all been drinking ~o rne exhilirnting gas. The depths of thrs un e~ pl ore d forest were a place to delight the heart of n. botanist. .Thm:e .was a nch under(Trowth of plants, and numerous gay co lured flowers m bnlli.ant bloom. \V e reached the outlet at length, where some freshly barked wrllows that lay In the water ~hawed that heaver had been recently at work. '"fhere were some small brown SC)uirrels j umping about in the pines, and a co uple of large mallard duck8 swimming about in the ot ream. . . . The hill ~ on this southern end were low, and the lake lonkrd l d\:e a munH~ aea, as the waves broke on the sandy bench in the force of a strong breeze. 'fherc wns a pretty, open spot, with fine gruss for our mules, and we made |