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Show V * -I 208 DIFFICULT NAVIGATION----REMARKABLE HILLS. dicular clefts or ravines. The twenty-six men who towed our boat had been often obliged to put off the greater part of their clothes, to wade through the water, and the mud of the soft sand banks. The trunk of a tree, lying on a bank, broke the door of our cabin, and we were frequently obliged to row. For this purpose there were on the deck, two large and long oars, which were worked by three or five men, who walked backwards and forwards. At a large pile of drift-wood on the bank, an immense tree swept our deck, as the people who were towing did not hear us call to them, and broke the stays, by which I received a severe blow, which might have proved dangerous. Often, too, we came so near the bank, that the earth covered the windows, and made our cabins quite dark. We had our dinner at four o'clock, consisting of salt pork, pemmican, hard ship's biscuit, and coffee. In the evening, when the sun was setting, and illumined the chain of hills with wonderful splendour, our hunters returned with a young deer. On this day Mr. Mitchell divided the crew of the vessel into watches, so that two men might always watch, who were relieved three times in the night. Powder and ball were distributed among the men, but they were forbidden, under penalty of five dollars, to fire, which might easily have attracted Indian war parties. On the following morning (July 7), the weather was agreeable and the sky clear; we saw many swans, but could not get at them. We had before observed these beautiful birds and wild geese on the sandy beach. The young branches of the thickets had suffered by the frost, and the river had fallen four inches; to-day, however, the heat was so intense that we could scarcely bear it on deck. We observed that the stems of the poplars, to the height of five feet, or fifteen feet above the present level of the river, had the bark rubbed off by the ice. In this part there appeared, before the hills, cones of a most singular shape, burnt to a brick red; and the summits of the higher hills were often strangely formed in various angles. In the whitish strata of clay-slate between the clay are here and there apertures, arched above in the form of the gates or windows of knights' castles. The men who towed our boat killed, in the prairie, a large rattlesnake, the rattle of which we had heard on board the vessel. The hunters had seen some elks and deer ; and Dechamp brought one of the latter on board. The towers had much labour at this part of our voyage, the current of the river being very strong; they were sometimes obliged to climb, in a long row, up the hills, where we saw them suspended, like chamois, in dangerous positions. Mr. Bodmer sketched some of these hills on the left bank. (Plate XXXIV. Fig. 1.) In other places, the engages who were towing were obliged to make a way on the bank by cutting down large poplars and thick bushes, which often cost much time and trouble. Here they often met with rattlesnakes, of which they killed several. Mr. Bodmer came so near one of these snakes, that he had nearly been bitten by it; he, however, killed it by a blow, and brought it on board. On this occasion, Mr. Mitchell told us that he had once seen an Indian boy die in an hour and a half after having been bitten by one of these snakes. |